From Our Correspondent
NONGSTOIN: Election fever caught the people of Nongstoin on Friday when public meetings by four out of the five candidates of 32- Nongstoin AC were held at the New Nongstoin playground.
The meeting kicked off with the UDP, party candidate Nasar Marwein along with ex MLA Francis K Mawlot taking the centre stage. Star campaigner Paul Lyngdoh who is also the UDP working president said that the long pending border dispute with Assam was due as the Congress MLAs in Meghalaya were ‘rubber stamps’ and followed the commands from Delhi. He added that all the Congress MLAs of the State did was give false promises and assurances time and again.
UDP candidate Nasar Marwein said lack of development in Nongstoin for four decades forced him to contest. He assured that if given a chance to represent them, he along with the partymen from Shillong would bring in a nursing institution in Nongstoin.
HSPDP followed next with Dr Fenela Nonglait, party candidate from Mawthadraishan AC taking the dais. She said HSPDP was the only party that strove for the rights of the indigenous people of the State. She added that Hopingstone Lyngdoh had initiated his clean politics campaign since 1972 and also declared that Dr Adviser Pariong’s political run had come to an end as she was confident that Hopingstone would trounce him.
She accused Dr Pariong of contesting against the man that placed the crown of Health Minister on his head. She also alleged that Dr Pariong was very benevolent prior to the elections, as he was disbursing the funds for development. She informed that the funds were actually from the erstwhile Pariong AC.
Set Singh Dkhar NPP candidate in the meeting said that he was the only local amongst the candidates and knew the problems of the local area better than any of the candidates. He blamed the previous leaders for misleading the people of Nongstoin for 40 years. He said that the lackadaisical attitude of the MLAs as the reason for him contesting the elections. He also urged the people to refrain from hiring any candidate from outside.
INC candidate Dr Adviser Pariong began by clarifying the allegations leveled against him by the HSPDP. He said that as a responsible MLA, he knew what the problems of the people of the area were. He informed that he was contesting from Nongstoin as most of the polling stations from Pariong AC were now in Nongstoin AC after the delimitation. He said that he had no choice but to contest against his mentor, Hopingstone Lyngdoh.
Regarding the allegations on his support and misappropriations in the uranium mining, he said that the uranium deposits were in Ranikor AC and that the MLA of the area was M M Danggo and that he had nothing to do with it.