SHILLONG: This year’s district council and Lok Sabha elections will be crucial for the Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma as their results will show the performance graph of the Congress in State under his leadership.
The delay in solving the ILP-related agitations which resulted in three human casualties is likely to affect the performance of Congress in the district council elections.
Moreover, it took a long time, nearly four months, for the Chief Minister to call the pressure groups for talks which is scheduled on January 15.
However, senior State Congress leaders asserted that the ILP issue will not have any effect on the poll prospects of the party both in the district council and Lok Sabha elections.
Senior Congress minister HDR Lyngdoh recently said that Congress will not have any difficulty in winning the upcoming elections.
But the trend showing anti-Congress wave as a whole after the recently concluded Assembly elections, winning two Lok Sabha seats will not be easy.
The Chief Minister, who has taken credit for securing as many as 29 seats in the last year’s Assembly elections is likely to have a tough time this time with the regional parties are all out to take on Congress both in the district council and Lok Sabha polls.
Though the non-Congress parties are yet to announce any pre-poll alliance for the district council polls, many political parties are coming together with an aim to defeat the Congress candidates both in Shillong and Tura.
For the Chief Minister, who is still basking in the glory of security maximum seats in the Assembly elections, the upcoming twin elections will be an acid test which will determine whether he still holds the clout in the State Congress.
