TURA, April 15: Defeat at the hands of the Congress in the GHADC numbers game has been attributed to the financial situation that plagued the council leading to employees being without pay for almost three years.
“The blame was on the NPP-led Executive Committee for non-clearance of salaries of the employees for thirty long months. In Tura the fight was tough for various reasons and also because a large chunk of employees of GHADC reside in Tura. They have been very unhappy and we understand,” Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters at his home in his first reaction to the results.
“We accept and respect the mandate given by the people and are determined to work even harder,” he added.
He acknowledged that the NPP had expected to cross the halfway mark of 15 seats but many factors including anti-incumbency played a role. “Even in the previous election when Congress was in power in GHADC they faced a similar situation winning just 7 seats to the NPP’s 10. The numbers didn’t make up for the ruling party,” the CM pointed out.
He revealed that the NPP would conduct a postmortem in all the areas and constituencies where the results went against them.
NPP state president W.R. Kharlukhi also admitted that allegations of corruption had an impact on the party’s performance in the polls. “We accept the verdict of the people and we will work hard and prepare ourselves for the Assembly elections,” he said.
Asked if corruption was the primary reason for the NPP’s dismal performance, Kharlukhi said, “I don’t know but the way things have gone it seems that those accusations have had an impact on the voters and most of our top leaders were defeated.”
Expressing optimism that the NPP would be a part of the new EC, Kharlukhi said that the chief minister, who is camping in Tura, will call the shots.