SHILLONG: BJP national spokesperson and Meghalaya in charge Nalin Kohli has said the State government has vested interest in creating confusion about the Centre’s demonetisation move and not informing them about its actual benefits.
Reacting to a query about the poor performance of the party in the District Council by-election, Kohli said it has helped the party to get an idea about where the party has support and where it has to strengthen itself.
“It was a trial for the main election that is more than 16 months away,” he told The Shillong Times. He added that the by-election was a useful exercise for BJP and the party’s performance was very impressive in one of the constituencies where it got almost 6,500 votes.
The total vote polled by BJP from the seven constituencies under the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) was only 8,418 of the over 1 lakh electorate.
The party, however, garnered the highest number of votes (6,601) from Mairang-Nongkhlaw while it came last from the lone JHADC seat War East with only 65 votes out of over 6,000 electorate.
BJP State president Shibun Lyngdoh had earlier cited lack of understanding on the demonetisation drive as one of the main reasons for the poor performance in the by-poll.
Kohli said there was no question of revamping the party in Meghalaya as it is gearing up for the main elections. Asked about pre-poll alliance with like-minded parties, he said it is too early to comment anything on the matter and even no party has sent any proposal for alliance so far.
