SHILLONG: Mahendro Rapsang, the probable candidate of the Congress to contest the upcoming Assembly election from West Shillong constituency has said that they want the vote of the people of the constituency by heart and not by force or through threat.
The statement came from Rapsang a day after miscreants had lobbed a petrol bomb at the residence of West Shillong sitting MLA Paul Lyngdoh, which Lyngdoh had termed handiwork of Rapsang’s supporters.
“We want peace in the area and this is the reason we went to the SP and asked him for adequate security arrangements in the constituency so that the area remains peaceful,” Rapsang said while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday.
Denying the allegations of Lyngdoh, Rapsang said, “We are not that type of people who will indulge in such nonsense things and in fact we condemn the incident.”
Stating that the allegations were made against him to tarnish his image, Rapsang also informed that they have filed an FIR on Tuesday with the SP about an incident where three miscreants destroyed the CCTV camera installed at the Congress office in Lower Mawprem.
Rapsang has also handed over some evidences and footages from the CCTV to the police.
Rapsang while denying the allegations that his supporters have threatened the UDP leaders termed the allegations as false and baseless.
According to Rapsang, he would consult with his legal advisor to seek an opinion if he should file a defamation case against Lyngdoh for his allegations.
On the allegations that Congress office in Lower Mawprem remains open till early morning hours, one of the supporters of Rapsang said that there was no hard and fast rule that an office of a political organisation should be closed at a fixed time.
“In other places, political parties are working for 24 hours as long as they don’t disturb people,” the supporter added.
Another supporter of Rapsang, Michael Pakyntein while referring to the statement of the incumbent MLA that he contested the election on three occasion earlier against people like AH Scott Lyngdoh and others but those opponents never campaigned in an aggressive manner, said that the incumbent MLA was making such wild accusations since he was scared of losing the upcoming election given that last time he had won by a margin of only 481 votes.