GUWAHATI: Former legislator, John Leslee Sangma, who will be contesting for the South Tura seat for the second time in six months, is approaching the “challenge” of taking on Meghalaya chief minister, Conrad K Sangma, positively.
John Leslee had contested the February Assembly elections from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) but lost to NPP’s Agatha Sangma.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Saturday, he said he was aware of the challenge, given that the allies of the MDA government were behind NPP in South Tura.
“I know but it’s no big deal. It all depends on your mindset and how you approach the contest. Winning or losing is not an issue but what matters is how far I can reach out to the people and create awareness about issues,” John Leslee said.
The by-poll to the South Tura seat is scheduled for August 23. It was necessitated after Agatha had quit as MLA on July 2 to pave way for her brother, Conrad, to contest from the seat as he has to be elected as a legislator to continue as chief minister. As of now a triangular contest is on the cards in South Tura with Congress deciding to field former principal of Tura Government Public School, Charlotte W Momin.
Regretting his contest in the February election as an NCP candidate, he said, “It was not a good platform and there was a lot of confusion at that time. Looking back I think I would have been better off contesting as an Independent. I am not blaming NCP but the fact that I joined the party just about 20 days before the contest, left me with very little time to reach out to the people as a candidate from the party.”
In the 2013 Assembly elections, John Leslee had defeated the then Congress candidate from South Tura, Billykid A Sangma (now in BJP).
