VPP’s vote share reduced drastically in ADC elections: Dhar
National People’s Party (NPP) national general secretary and deputy chief minister Sniawbhalang Dhar on Tuesday said that vote share of the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) has reduced to 3.71 lakh while the vote share of the NPP has increased by 2.80 lakh in the just concluded elections to the autonomous district councils (ADCs) in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills regions of the state.
“The VPP has got only 3.71 lakh votes in the ADC elections from the 5 lakh votes polled in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections (from the 36 Assembly constituencies in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills under the Shillong parliamentary). This means that the VPP’s vote share has drastically reduced within a short span of 8-9 months and by 2028, it will reduced by 80 percent you will never know and we are working towards that,” Dhar told reporters.
He however claimed that the NPP has improved its performance in the recently held ADC elections by increasing its vote share to 2.80 lakh.
“This time the difference with the VPP’s vote share is only 85,000 compared to 3 lakh votes in the last MP elections,” Dhar said.
The NPP is forming the new executive committee (EC) in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) with the support of 18 MDCs of which 14 NPP, 3 UDP and 1 Independent while it got only 4 seats out of 29 constituencies in the Khasi Hills Autonomous DIstrict Council (KHADC) after the VPP’s sweeping victory by winning 17 seats.
“I thank the people of Jaintia Hills for reposing their faith and trust thereby making us the single largest party in the JHADC. We have improved by more than 50-60%. We also respect the mandate given by the people in Khasi Hills where we got only 4 seats,” the NPP national general secretary said. .
On VPP president Ardent M Basaiawmoit’s allegation against the use of muscle power in Jaintia Hills, Dhar said but the incident at Narwan village shows that it was the VPP that are using muscle power by vandalising the house of a former headman.
“There is no muscle power during the elections. People are exercising their rights to cast their votes (freely). Just because we got 13 seats, it doesn’t mean that we are using muscle power. In fact, it is the VPP that are using muscle power by vandalising the house of a rangbah shnong of Narwan village yesterday. So they are using muscle power not us,” he said while adding “Just because they have won up to 17 seats in KHADC, should we also alleged that they are using muscle power? No, we respect the mandate given by the people. We did not make any allegation of the use of muscle power against them for winning 17 seats in Khasi Hills and just because we have won 13 seats in JHADC, they will alleged that we are using muscle power that is wrong.”
“We are improving our performance very much as MDA. We got 12 seats in total in KHADC and 18 in JHADC,” he added.
Further, Dhar also maintained that the MDA has no intention to form the new EC in the KHADC since people have given clear mandate to the VPP and said, “They (VPP) are getting a solid majority so let them form the new EC.”
He however hinted saying, “If they are not able to carry forward we will see after few years. We will see.”
Stating that the VPP has made lots of promises during the election, Dhar said, “I expect that they will deliver all promises so that people will be happy and if not, people will be unhappy, simple. So people will give them three years time.”
Asked if NPP will also approach the Congress in JHADC, Dhar said, “Let us see let us finish the first phase.”
He also assured that the new EC led by NPP will address the issue of financial crisis faced by the JHADC and said, “Let the new EC be formed as we are trying to address this issue as a government properly. We are trying to address as financial crisis is always there in the council so we are trying to work in such a manner that in future it should be okay.”
On the other hand, Dhar said there have been many instances in the past that the functioning of the ADCs are not affected despite the ruling party is not the same as that in the state government.
“Why will there be any conflicts? Who told you? They are running the district council and we are running the state simple as that. We know how to run the government. In the past, there have been so many instances where the parties are not the same in the state and district council everything went smoothly.
We know how to look at it,” he said.
“Don’t say VPP, don’t say NPP, don’t say Congress, we are for the people of our state. We have one agenda only we want to take the state forward that’s all. I think VPP, NPP and all political parties have the same mind we want to take up the state to new heights,” Dhar further stated.
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