People voted against the Congress: CM

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaNovember 2, 2021

National People’s Party (NPP) national president and chief minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday said that the mandate is very clear that people have voted against the opposition Congress.

He was reacting to the poor performance of the Congress in the just concluded bypolls to the three Assembly seats – Mawryngkneng, Mawphlang and Rajabala.

Sangma told reporters that Congress has not been able to win a single seat in the North East region.

“This again is a very strong indication of the kinds of problems that the Congress is facing and how their future is getting more and bleeker as they move along,” he said.  

Stating that the Congress was divided into two groups in the Rajabala constituency, Sangma alleged the Congress leaders and workers were actually working for the UDP candidate in the hill area and that created a lot of confusion within the Congress party.

“I could see Congress leaders were working for the UDP candidate in the hill area, so there was a clear division within the Congress party and I am sure that similar things happened in Mawryngkneng and Mawphlang also,” he said.

“Clearly this division, infighting and the blame game that is there have reflected in the results that have come out and I should say it is a very bad result for them and I am sure that the party leadership will think about how to repair and how to move forward,” he added.

Expressing his gratitude to the people of all the three constituencies, the chief minister said, “Today we have won as a government in all the three seats.”

“I would like to thank the people of all the three constituencies specially Mawryngkneng and Rajabala for having put their faith and trust in the NPP. Also I would like to thank the voters of Mawphlang who have also voted in large numbers for the NPP and have elected the candidate of one of the coalition partners in the government, the UDP which is a direct mandate towards the government itself,” he said.

Stating that the bypolls was very tough for the party, the NPP national chief said, “The reason I say this is because these two seats the NPP has won were seats that have been traditionally won by the opposition Congress. In both the seats you have seen in the previous elections, the NPP used to come third or fourth in the rank.

In fact in 2013, the NPP managed to get only 450 votes in Rajabala, in 2018 we got 4,800 votes and in this election we have crossed 11,823 votes so a jump of almost closed to 7,000 votes in Rajabala which was a huge task, it was almost double the votes we got in 2018. Similarly in Mawryngkneng it was the same.”

“The fight has been tough and yet the people have put their trust because of the agendas and the works of this government,” he added.

Sangma said despite the allegations by the opposition Congress, the NPP did not speak against them during the election campaigns.

“I had said we would like to work and play the politics of development, politics of progressive movement, election and a campaign of issues of the people and that’s how we have been doing it,” he stated.

When asked, the Chief Minister said that there was no such understanding between the NPP and the UDP during the bye elections.

“There was no understanding as we were committed to our candidates and our party. We have always maintained that we are coalition partners who will always respect each other and work together towards the overall agenda of development of the state. Beyond that when it comes to elections we respect each other and wherever the UDP and NPP have to contest, we contest against each other,” he stated.

If there will be any induction of new faces in the cabinet, Sangma responded by saying, “We are very clear we are committed to our coalition partners, we are not the kind of political party that is an opportunist or simply using and throwing people that is not the principle that we follow – if there is any adjustment in the system and all, discussion will be made with the party and the coalition partners – it is not simply because we have won these two seats that we simply tomorrow get up in the morning and say we don’t need our coalition partners.”

“(Therefore), let them (new MLAs) first take oath, settle down and meet their people, we will sit down and move further,” he further asserted.