VPP’s victory in LS polls cannot be linked to 2028 elections: Dhar

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 12, 2024

NPP national general secretary and deputy chief minister Sniawbhalang Dhar on Wednesday said the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP)’s landslide victory from Shillong parliamentary seat in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls will not have any impact on the 2028 polls.

Speaking to reporters, Dhar said “You cannot link it (2024 LS polls) with 2028 Assembly elections. Of course, there is scope for VPP to increase its seats but you cannot also undermine the fact that the NPP, UDP and other parties will also work very hard since we have got 3-4 years time.”

Dhar said that such victory is not new to Meghalaya.  “Let’s go back to history. In 2019, Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (candidate Jemino Mawthoh) had contested against Vincent H Pala but Pala secured 4 lakh votes and it was also a landslide victory for him. We won only from Khliehriat constituency.”

“Therefore, elections of MLA, MDC and MP are totally different. It doesn’t mean that they (VPP) won MP elections, they will get the same vote share in the other elections, it is definitely not like that,” he said. He added, “Pala won in 2019 by a margin of over 2 lakh votes but in 2023, the Congress could win only 4 seats (from Khasi-Jaintia region). That’s why people are wiser than you think. Therefore, you should never underestimate our voters.”  

He also admitted that there are NPP supporters from his Nartiang constituency, who did not voted for the party candidate. “On asked, they (NPP supporters) said because you are not the one contesting. Had you contested we will never leave you,” Dhar said.

Congratulating Syngkon for being elected as new Shillong MP, Dhar said, “Personally, I respect the mandate given by the people and I congratulated Syngkon on being elected as new Shillong MP and I hope he will be abe to fulfil all the promises made to the people during the elections.”

“I also thank all the supporters of NPP even though we did not win. I also thank the people of Nartiang constituency, which has given over 11000 votes to our candidate,” he added.

Dhar also assured that the NPP, which is leading the MDA government, will continue to serve the people of the state without any partiality or biasness.

“As leaders, we promised the people that we will try our best to serve you better. From the party and the government, we would like to apologize to the people for any shortcomings so that from now onwards we will try to work and serve our people better without any partiality or biasness,” he said.

Also informing that the post-mortem on the party’s poor performance is underway, the NPP leader said, “We are conducting post mortem to identify the shortcomings and lapses. If you win or lose, you need to conduct a post mortem. Since we lost by a huge margin, post mortem is underway and we will try to correct all our shortcomings and lapses as a party and as a government as a whole.”

“Let us learn from our mistakes, may be that (defeat) is the best. As leaders we accept the mistakes we have done and we are trying to post mortem what we have done in last few years,” he said.