Constituency watch: Mawthadraishan
From Our Correspondent
NONGSTOIN: There are two applicants for the Congress party ticket for Mawthadraishan Assembly Constituency of West Khasi Hills District. They are veteran party workers Irene Lyngdoh, sitting MDC from Pariong constituency and former Mairang MLA Boldness Nongum who is also President of Mawthadraishan Block Congress Committee.
Boldness Nongum contested the last Assembly election in 2008 from Mairang constituency but was defeated by UDP candidate Metbah Lyngdoh.
Due to the new delimitation by the Election Commission of India, many polling station of Mairang have been shifted to the Mawthadraishan Assembly constituency and the same will be operational during the 2013 election.
On the other hand parts of the Pariong Assembly constituency have been shifted to Nongstoin as per the new constituency delimitation. The newly formed Mawthadraishan constituency has become a bone of contention between two veteran Congress party workers Irene Lyngdoh and Boldness Nongum, wherein both of them apparently enjoy 50-50 support from Congress voters. Hence ticket allocation for Mawthadraishan will be critical for the Congress party and the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has to tread cautiously as it could lose this seat altogether.
Already there are rumblings among Congress party workers of Mawthadraishan. Talking to this correspondent a veteran Congress party worker and diehard supporter of Irene Lyngdoh, S K Bani said that if the Congress High Command does not allot the party ticket to Irene Lyngdoh, all her supporters from the same constituency will shift their party allegiance to Hill State Peoples’ Democratic Party (HSPDP) after making Irene Lyngdoh seek the HSPDP ticket. Bani is hopeful that Irene would sail through. Interestingly, the HSPDP has not allotted the party ticket for Mawthadraishan constituency till date. People are of the opinion that the internal feud in the Congress before every election might lead to its downfall and that this may be the case here too.
