GUWAHATI: The thumping win registered by United Democratic Party’s Balajied Kupar Synrem to retain the Shella Assembly seat can be attributed to a few key factors, the most apparent being the “sympathy wave”, following the untimely demise of his father, seven-time winner from the seat and former chief minister, Dr Donkupar Roy.
The tide turned in favour of UDP during the election campaign itself with the ruling National People’s Party displaying clarity by choosing not to contest and instead put its weight behind the regional party in the coalition MDA government.
“From the trend one can visualise the sympathy factor in memory of late Dr Donkupar Roy,” former Congress leader, John F Kharshiing, told The Shillong Times when asked to react on the outcome.
Confusion and differences in the Opposition Congress camp in regard to the party candidate also helped contribute to a landslide UDP victory with a winning margin of as many as 6221 votes, with Independent candidate, Grace Mary Kharpuri coming a distant second with 5781 votes.
“I have come to learn from sources at the INC block level was that the internal ground recommendations for the party ticket was for either Grace M Kharpuri, sitting MDC of Pynursla and for Wilfred Khyllep, former bureaucrat. However for whatever reason again, Congress gave the ticket (to Batyngshain Laitmon Ryngnga ) against the view of the survey,” Kharshiing said.
The former Congress leader further credited People’s Democratic Front for emerging as a factor in the vote share and putting up a good fight even without a credible leader.
He however did not rule out the money power factor influencing the outcome.
“Internal inputs received indicate to a huge cash flow against each vote. I wonder how this can be stopped. It’s the same all over the country with money power being the primary criteria for being selected or considered for a party ticket …which defeats the Constitution’s Preamble. ‘We the people’ is now ‘we the richest people,’” Kharshiing said.
Commenting on the Congress’ debacle, former party leader and state home minister, Robert G Lyngdoh said, “Congress could have given a better fight with the right choice of candidate. Unfortunately, that did not happen. This smoothened the way for UDP.”
Asked to react, KHNAM youth wing, president Thomas Passah, however, chose to reserve his comments on the outcome.
“With the party not participating in the election, I would not comment much on the outcome. All the candidates tried their best. The people of Shella have given their decision and in a democracy we all have to respect the mandate of the people,” Passah said.