TURA: At a time when the BJP has nothing to lose in this Tura Lok Sabha by-election, it appears to be calling the shots.
The official posters of Congress appeal the voters of Garo Hills to defeat BJP despite the party not being in the fray.
The BJP, which is an ally of the NPP, has launched an attack on the Congress taunting it for failing to even mention the name of its party candidate, Dikkanchi D Shira, in its own posters pasted in public places.
The Congress posters have the pictures of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mukul Sangma and Dikkanchi D Shira, but remain silent on the name of its own candidate. It has no mention of the NPP or the opposition candidate and only calls for the defeat of the BJP.
A bemused national spokesperson of the BJP and Meghalaya in-charge, Nalin Kohli, took pot-shots at the Congress, during an interaction with the media in Tura on Monday, ridiculing the preposterous claims of Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma.
“I have been covering political campaigns for the last many years. But I have witnessed the most unique poster of the Congress in this by-election for the Tura seat. It even failed to mention the candidate’s name,” said Kohli.
“This displayed the great unease and nervousness in the Congress camp,” remarked Kohli.
The BJP leader who arrived in Tura on Sunday to take stock of the political situation in the run up to the May 16 elections targeted the chief minister saying “Mukul Sangma would do well to remember that Meghalaya is not his fiefdom and with 18 parliamentary secretaries and 12 ministers in a party of 30 elected members he is on a rocking boat with too many to please.”
Reminding the voters of Garo Hills about last year’s defeat of the Congress and victory of the BJP in the GHADC elections from Zikzak seat, which forms a part of Dikkanchi D Shira’s Mahendraganj legislative assembly, Nalin Kohli said that Mukul Sangma was nervous ever since his wife lost to the BJP candidate in the council polls.
“Mukul Sangma and his wife should understand that they cannot laud over the people of Meghalaya, particularly the citizens of Garo Hills, like a king and queen. Meghalaya is not a kingdom and Mukul Sangma is not a king,” said the BJP leader.
The BJP, which has been monitoring this election, said that this by-poll would be a tribute to the leadership of Late Purno A Sangma.
“P A Sangma was an outstanding leader who put Garo Hills and the entire north-east into the national limelight. Today the BJP joins the people of Garo Hills by honouring his legacy by supporting his son’s candidature. Conrad has immense potential to raise the issues of Garo Hills in Parliament and we support him,” said Kohli.
He also threw a challenge to Mukul Sangma and the Congress over the candidature of Conrad Sangma.
Kohli suggested to the chief minister to withdraw from the race in a ‘dignified’ manner to avoid a ‘humiliation’.
