SHILLONG, April 17: After a laborious battle in Garo Hills, the National People’s Party (NPP) is now girding its loins to bag the vacant seats of Mawryngkneng and Rajabala — the bypolls for which are set to be held, although no dates have been announced for the same so far.
Party chief and Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, on Saturday, said that the NPP is gearing up for the two by-elections and will work hard to ensure a win in both the constituencies. “We are preparing for it now and waiting for the formation of the executive committee in the GHADC. Once it is done, the party will have meetings and discussions,” the NPP chief said.
Pointing out that the by-elections to the two constituencies have not been announced yet, Sangma said, “We are waiting for that and yes the NPP will be working very hard to ensure that we win both the seats”.
To a query that the GHADC polls were witnessed as a semi-final to Assembly elections in 2023 and how does he see his party prospects after the poll results for the 2023 battle in Garo Hills region, Conrad said, “From my personal consumption and the way I see it, this election (GHADC MDC polls) has strongly been an anti-incumbency elections by the simple fact that 25 sitting MDCs were wiped out and only four made”.
He, however, added, “MLA elections are a different ball game, and different factors will affect the MLA election whether it is important to read into it is absolutely important”.
“We have to see the state government’s performance, the MLA’s individual fighting capacity; all these factors will come in play and we have one year and eight months to work hard at the grassroots level… also a good experience for us to see and improve the overall working and make sure we push things to new level,” he said.
The NPP chief said that the GHADC elections served as a great experience for the party but all elections are different and fought on different issues and agendas.