By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Delimitation of constituencies and lack of sufficient time for the new party NPP to spread its wings across the State resulted in the poll debacle, party legislator James Sangma said on Saturday.
James, who is camping in Shillong, told reporters that while the delimitation made the contest difficult in many constituencies another problem was that NPP as a new party took time to establish itself.
“For Meghalaya NPP was a new party. It takes time for a new party to establish itself since it was at its nascent stage,” he said.
According to James, the people of Garo Hills took some time to understand the symbol and various aspects related to the new party.
“The opponents also created confusion among the voters about the NPP and its symbol,” he said.
Soon after the poll debacle, the NPP held an introspection meeting in Tura.
Asked whether money power on the part of the opponents resulted in the poor performance of the NPP, James said that the Election Commission was aware that a lot of candidates were using money power.
“Though there were checks and measures to prevent this, certain candidates had their way,” he added.
Moreover, the presence of more Independents and rebel Congress candidates also prevented NPP candidates from emerging victorious, he said.
The NPP legislator, however, said that efforts are on to revamp the party for better performances in future.
