SHILLONG, June 12: The Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) will impress upon the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to release the list of the party candidates in a phase-wise manner.
“We will need to adopt a new approach or convention by announcing the list of the party ahead of the time. This will allow the party candidates to prepare for elections much better,” MPCC working president, Pynshngain N Syiem, said here on Sunday.
Lamenting that the Congress has been following the convention of announcing the party candidates for all the 60 constituencies at the same time just before the elections, Syiem said that names of candidates should be released immediately after they are finalised.
Replying to a query, he said the party has so far got candidates in at least 40-plus constituencies in both Khasi-Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills region.
Syiem further informed that the MPCC will soon constitute the State Election Committee (SEC) to decide and finalise on the party candidates before it is sent to the AICC for its final approval.
‘Revocation of suspension of MLAs not an option’
The MPCC working president also made it clear that revoking the suspension of the five congress MLAs is not an option unless they withdraw their support from the NPP-led MDA Government, in which the BJP is an ally.
“We suspended them because they support the government where BJP is a coalition partner. Once they withdraw their support, I think we can then discuss to revocation,” said Syiem, informing that there has been no communication from any of the suspended MLAs.
He also asserted that nothing has been finalised on the fate of the suspended MLAs.
