TURA: With just a couple of days left for campaigning to end for the April 11 elections to the Tura parliamentary seat, rivals Congress and NPP are pushing the last mile making a plethora of promises to the voters while simultaneously ridiculing their rivals ‘deeds’.
This election, voters have not identified themselves with a particular issue but rather a variety of problems that are more localised than global.
For example, the voters in the Nangalbibra-Jadigittim-Chokpot zone want the issue of the coal ban to be resolved. They have been the hardest hit by the National Green Tribunal ban on rat hole mining in the state and hundreds of families have lost their livelihood.
The Congress, in its campaign, has attacked the NPP and the BJP accusing them of lying to the public to win votes in last year’s assembly elections.
“The BJP and its allies (read NPP) promised to lift the ban within six months if elected to power. It is more than one year now and nothing has happened,” allege Congress leaders in Garo Hills.
The NPP has been quick to return fire with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma accusing the last Congress government in the state headed by current Congress candidate Mukul Sangma of turning a blind eye while people’s livelihoods were lost.
“Did he (Mukul) even challenge the NGT ban or move the central government even once? No. It was our government which has already challenged the ban before the NGT and petitioned the central government,” claims Conrad Sangma.
But the coal issue is not of relevance in the plains belt region of West Garo Hills where the minority Muslim community resides. The failed attempt by the BJP government in Delhi to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is the biggest concern for them.
For many in the Rajabala-Phulbari-Mahendraganj areas of West Garo Hills, CAB is seen as the issue targeted at them. Both Congress and NPP claim to be the sentinels that stopped the BJP in its tracks over the CAB bill.
The NPP says they were the first to oppose the bill and even led a delegation to the prime minister to announce their opposition to any move to pass the bill, whereas the Congress questions the former.
“Does the NPP have any member in parliament to stop the bill? It was because of the Congress and its allies having a majority in the Rajya Sabha that the BJP decided against introducing it knowing fully well it would have been defeated during the last parliament session,” Mukul Sangma says in his rallies, though Conrad Sangma accuses the Congress in Meghalaya of remaining silent while the issue was burning.
The issue of development has remained one of the core agenda of both parties. The Congress has been heaping praise on their candidate and former chief minister highlighting the development works undertaken by him in the last eight years.
“He has sanctioned hundreds of roads in the rural areas, laid the foundation for the first medical college in Tura and begun the process for construction of Pine Mount residential schools in Garo Hills,” announce Congress leaders Grithalson Arengh and others.
Doing a comparison, they question the ‘development’ claims of the NPP when it comes to Tura parliamentary seat.
“By repeatedly attacking late P A Sangma whom people of Garo Hills elected for over 40 years and questioning his development works the Congress is not only insulting our late leader but also questioning the people who voted for him,” says Conrad Sangma in successive election rallies.
To neutralise the Congress claims of development, the NPP has also brought forward their work undertaken in the last one year.
“We have ensured Meghalaya received the highest allocation of MGNREGA funds and in the last one year the funding has crossed over a thousand crore rupees. We have also managed to obtain from the Centre over a dozen Eklavya model residential schools for tribal students across Meghalaya. There are also numerous road projects that have been cleared and work can be seen underway along the Tura-Dalu highway, Selsella-Phulbari-Tikrikilla stretch, among many such schemes,” says NPP candidate Agatha Sangma.
As both parties showcase their past work, it will be interesting to see whose future projects will be endorsed by the voters when they enter the polling booth to press on the voting button.
