SHILLONG, Nov 14: Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP), the oldest party in the state, is positive that it will win more seats in the 2023 Assembly polls, party president KP Pangniang said on Friday.
An African saying: when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, which means that the weak gets hurt in conflicts between the powerful; is working in the opposite way for the regional party, who is hopeful that come 2023 polls and they will benefit from the fight between the National People’s Party (NPP) and the Indian National Congress (INC).
“It is actually a very good position for us as the two major national parties will be fighting against each other, and while they are fighting, regional parties will get more chance to win seats,” Pangniang said while replying to a query whether he thinks that it will be a stronger fight for them considering top guns like the Congress and NPP will be going all out this time around.
Albeit the 2023 polls are still far away, yet few political parties have begun their ground work, be it the BJP, Peoples Democratic Front (PDF) and now the HSPDP making it known on Friday.
While maintaining that the party was formed even before Meghalaya got its statehood and that it is the oldest party in the state, Pangniang said, “Even with two MLAs, the party is committed to work hard so as to raise issues of the people and strive to bring in more MLAs in the Assembly by 2023”, adding, ‘‘the party believes that it will receive positive response in the coming election’’.
“We are positive that people of the state, especially in Khasi and Jaintia Hills, will give us more MLAs,” the party president said.
Informing that the party has already started working in a comprehensive manner, Pangniang said he is positive that the HSPDP will receive good response from West Khasi Hills, East Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Ri Bhoi.
Pangniang also pointed out that HSPDP, which is a part and parcel of the MDA, became an alliance carrying all their issues on board and has been raising them from time to time.
“We are working on these issues together with the state government. All the issues are being raised and that is why we are here to deliver. It will be remembered by the people,” he added.