SHILLONG: In the season of the seemingly invincible novel coronavirus, Deputy Chief Minister and senior NPP leader Prestone Tynsong on Thursday dug up yet another — ‘political virus’ — and dedicated the label to the main opposition party in the state, the Congress.
The labelling comes amid the party’s alleged attempt to win over MLAs of the ruling MDA to vote for its candidate Kennedy Khyriem in the upcoming election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat in the state.
The ‘political virus’ jibe came when Tynsong was asked about the alleged attempt of the Congress.
“Not only coronavirus, even in politics, there is a virus and we always need to be active,” Tynsong told media persons.
He, however, said that he was not surprised by the move of the Congress since it is their job to create confusion and spread rumour among the ruling conglomerate. “The opposition is spreading rumours similar to the ones that do the rounds about people testing positive for COVID-19,” Tynsong said.
Asked if parties of the MDA were happy with the decision to field NPP state president, WR Kharlukhi, as the consensus candidate for the election, he said that everyone was happy.
“I was the chairman of the committee to decide on the candidate for the Rajya Sabha MP seat from the MDA. The members from various political parties are members of the committee. The decision was a unanimous one,” he said.
When asked about PDF acting president, Banteidor Lyngdoh, expressing dissatisfaction over the selection of Kharlukhi, he said that the press should meet and ask him again if he was still unhappy with the decision.