Although the elections to the State Assembly of Meghalaya are scheduled for February-March 2018, Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma is touring Garo Hills extensively and inaugurating projects well ahead of time to enable the Congress party to claim proprietary rights over them. Mukul Sangma is already in election mode. Since people are gullible enough to believe that money for development projects comes from the pockets of individual legislators and the Government (which ‘belongs’ to the Congress Party) and not from the public exchequer, these claims will continue to bring in the votes. What helps the Congress and Mukul Sangma is the complete disarray in the regional parties. Not that this is a new phenomenon. Regional parties will, as usual try and put up a united front but will all set up candidates in their respective constituencies in what is called a “friendly match.” There cannot be a more absurd political excuse for the absence of a common ideology. If the Congress has had an uninterrupted stint, except for some periods of disruption, then the regional parties have themselves to blame. The irony is that regional parties repeat their errors every five years.
The Nationalist Peoples’ Party (NPP) an alliance partner of the BJP has not made its moves yet. Conrad Sangma its start campaigner, now that PA Sangma is no more, seems busy in assisting the councilors in Garo Hills District Council. The ruling coalition in the GHADC comprising NPP-GNC-BJP is alleged to have misused an amount of Rs 100 crore development fund from the Niti Aayog and of inflated project costs. Interestingly, it is the BJP which has constituted a 2-member team to go into these anomalies but nothing has come of the exercise so far. It remains to be seen how the NPP which is, till date, very Garo Hills centric gives the Congress a run for its money in the Assembly elections. As of now, Mukul Sangma is leaving no stone unturned to cover as much ground as possible and well ahead of the polls. Garo Hills seems all set to face the 2018 elections. It’s the Khasi and Jaintia Hills where the legislators have much to answer for but have not begun their innings yet.