SHILLONG: MP Vincent Pala has asserted that the Congress will face no threat from the combined force of the MDA in Shillong parliamentary constituency in next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Talking to media persons here recently, Pala said winning an election does not depend on mere candidates but it also depends on voters while citing an example about HDR Lyngdoh and Paul Lyngdoh who lost the elections while Ampareen Lyngdoh won the elections with a huge margin.
“Whichever candidate you bring and whatever combination you have, people in Khasi-Jaintia Hills will continue to vote for Congress in Lok Sabha election. People may or may not like me but they like Congress,” he said.
The NPP-led MDA coalition is keen on fielding a common candidate from Shillong since the seat has been held by the Congress for the last two terms.
When asked about the NPP’s accusations that the Congress cannot be revived in Meghalaya, Pala said the non-Congress parties in Meghalaya should look at the data since the vote share of UDP has gone down to 17 percent from 23 percent.
He also said NPP should not take everything for granted as all the leaders of the NPP like Prestone Tynsong, Comingone Ymbon, the Dhar brothers were all Congress leaders and “they took away some votes (in the Assembly election) but they will not be able to take away votes in the Lok Sabha polls”.
“They should look at the data and say whether the Congress is declining or they are on the decline,” he added.
The UDP, which is an ally of the NPP-led MDA government, has already made it clear that they want to field a UDP leader as the common candidate of the MDA in the Lok Sabha polls.
