From Saurav Borah
GUWAHATI: Entrepreneur, sports promoter and politician, Robert Romawia Royte wears many hats.
The 51-year-old who joined the Mizo National Front (MNF) just a couple of months back, is all geared up to contest the November 28 Assembly elections as he aims to replicate in the political arena the success his football club, Aizawl FC had achieved by becoming the first Northeast club to win the prestigious I-League in 2017.
Speaking to The Shillong Times from Aizawl on Wednesday afternoon during a break from hectic campaigning, Royte is confident that MNF would achieve absolute majority and bag between 27 and 30 seats in the 40-member Mizoram Assembly.
“MNF is focused on Mizo nationalism and development, which is the need of the hour. It is a party without boundaries and for all Mizos, no matter which part of the region, country or world they are. Any Mizo can join the party,” he said, when asked what led him to join MNF.
Asked the challenge in hand with so many parties in the contest, Royte said that MNF, which has a strong party structure, would be benefitted from it. “The inflow of members of other parties to MNF in the run-up to the polls has been huge and rather unprecedented. A careful analysis of the inflow/outflow pattern will clearly tell you that MNF is the choice of the people,” he said.
“In reality, some of the parties have no significance in terms of membership and many are likely to forfeit,” Royte, who had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections for Mizoram seat, claimed.
On the talk of a “fractured mandate” likely, he was critical and said that such a situation will never arise.
“MNF must be looked at from various perspectives as to why it would win the most number of seats. Unlike others, MNF has the candidates with the right personality, antecedents, education, age and command the respect of the voters. This is our biggest advantage,” said Royte, who is also the chairman of TT Royte Group and proprietor and chief managing director of Northeast Consultancy Services (NECS) in Aizawl.
“As a matter of fact, MNF by adhering to a rigorous selection procedure makes sure that it has the right candidates who can relate to people and vice versa,” he added.
About the agenda of the party, Royte said it was “well-thought out”.
“We are looking at viability, possibility and affordability in the schemes we promise. As far as our flagship socio-economic development programme (SEDP), we have a structure in place. We will adopt a viable sports policy unlike Congress, who failed to have one, despite Mizoram having all the talent in sports. The reason why football has become so popular is because of clubs, promoters and private players. The government has not played any role so far,” he said.
Passionate about the beautiful game, the Aizawl FC owner rued that the club could not host its counterparts in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup in Aizawl because it did not have a stadium with the requisite infrastructure.
“Fans are upset with the government which could not create the infrastructure for such an event because of which the home matches had to be staged in Guwahati, which is 600km away from Aizawl.
Taking a jibe at the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, who had while addressing the rally in Mizoram on Tuesday hinted at regional parties being accommodative to BJP, Royte rebutted by referring to the “unprecedented” alliance Congress stitched with the saffron party in the Chakma Autonomous Development Council in April this year.
On the Congress allegation of his consultancy firm “misappropriating” Central funds for a scheme meant for private schools, the entrepreneur said that the allegation has come too late and only indicated that NECS has been smart enough during the past eight years to get funds for upgrade of schools in Mizoram.
“No other firm in other Northeastern states could get such a scheme. Then again, why would the government sanction money without scrutiny and technical appraisal. The money from the government also goes in directly into the accounts of the schools. All said and done, the allegation by Congress has benefitted my poll campaign,” Royte said.