GUWAHATI: The National People’s Party, which is ruling the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, is not taking its opponents lightly in the August 23 by-elections to South Tura and Ranikor.
Asked about the prospects of NPP leader and Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma in South Tura, Thomas A Sangma, the party’s national general secretary said, “We will be seriously fighting the elections. We don’t want to take the polls lightly.”
Sangma, who is also the advisor to the Meghalaya chief minister, further said that the chief minister has contested four elections and has won two and lost two.
“So elections are not easy, not even for a chief minister or ruling party. It is definitely not going to be a cakewalk in the by-polls,” he said.
South Tura will see Conrad Sangma take on Congress’ Charlotte W Momin of Congress and Independents, John Leslee K Sangma and Chris Kabul A Sangma.
The by-elections to the constituency 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 to the state Assembly to continue as chief minister.
Asked whether Meghalaya will come up with an exercise such as the National Register of Citizens update, the draft of which was published by Assam on July 30, the advisor to the chief minister, said, “We are discussing the matter. We will do something to protect the interests of the residents of Meghalaya. Bonafide citizens of the state must be protected from any kind of harassment.”