SHILLONG: Congress candidate Vincent Pala, who won from Shillong for the third consecutive term, has asserted that he did not fight Jemino Mawthoh as common candidate of the MDA, but as a UDP candidate and assured people that his focus will be to improve connectivity and unemployment problem.
Speaking to newsmen after winning the election, he said that the margin (over 1.52 lakh) of his win is big this time and all the party workers and the party president have done an excellent job.
“Connectivity and unemployment issues will be focus point for me as committed in the manifesto”, he said.
When asked about the poor performance of the Congress at the national level, he said that people of India usually give two terms to every government and now people have given two terms to Narendra Modi and Congress will come back to power in the next term.
Reiterating that he did not fight Jemino Mawthoh as common candidate of the ruling alliance in the state, but as a UDP candidate, he said that it is easy to unite leaders but not voters, adding even in constituencies represented by UDP MLAs and ministers, he managed to win comfortably.
When asked about Tura where Congress could not win despite fielding veteran Mukul Sangma, he admitted that something went wrong but he also lauded Mukul Sangma for contesting the election in such a short time and still managing to get quite a number of votes.
He also said that the vote share of Congress has increased in Northeastern states while admitting that workers of other political parties have helped him win the Shillong seat.