SHILLONG: The NPP Garo Hills region has decided to field party leader Agatha Sangma for the Tura Lok Sabha seat setting up a high voltage contest with the Congress pitching Mukul Sangma.
A senior party leader said the election committee of the Garo Hills region met in Guwahati on Thursday evening and approved Agatha’s candidature.
The working president of the Garo Hills region, S B Sangma, chaired the meeting attended by members, including NPP MLAs.
There was also a separate meeting of another election committee for declaration of candidates in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The central election committee of the NPP will meet in New Delhi on Friday to discuss matters related to election and the contesting candidates.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister and NPP national president Conrad Sangma said he is going to New Delhi to take part in the meeting of the election committee of the party and the candidates will be announced on Friday. Sangma also denied speculations that he would contest the elections from Tura seat.
Sangma informed that former MP Agatha was the lone applicant for the party ticket for the Tura parliamentary seat. “So far, only Agatha has applied for party ticket. The election committee of the party will meet on Friday to discuss matters related to the election,” Sangma said before leaving for Delhi on Thursday.
Sangma maintained that the NPP will win the Tura parliamentary seat despite the decision of the Congress to field former chief minister Mukul Sangma.
“We know that the party is getting a good response at the grassroots level. The party organisation is very upbeat and therefore I am sure that the NPP will win the Tura seat by a very big margin,” the chief minister told reporters.
Sangma said the government and the party have been working very hard for the past one year and he is sure that people would like to see the good work of the present government to continue.
The Congress has fielded Mukul Sangma from Tura and MP Vincent Pala from Shillong.
When asked if the controversy on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill has led to rift between NPP and its ally BJP, he said there is no ambiguity in the stand of the NPP on the bill.
“In coalition, there will be differences and areas of disagreement and CAB was an issue of disagreement and we were very clear that if certain line is crossed, it would lead us to breaking our ties with them,” the chief minister said.