SHILLONG, Aug 13: State BJP president Ernest Mawrie has stirred up the hornest’s nest with his statement that even sitting MLAs of the party may not get the ticket for assembly polls next year if the survey report is not indicative of good performance by them in the upcoming elections.
The party conducts an internal survey of its candidates to discern their potential and chances of winning the election, which could be the deciding factor for candidates, if one is to go by Mawrie’s statement.
“In BJP, we have lot of procedures and the final decision on allotment of tickets is taken by the senior leaders of the party like (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, (Union Minister) Nitin Gadkari and others,” he said.
When asked for confirmation on whether or not the two party MLAs — AL Hek and Sanbor Shullai — could be denied tickets too if the survey report does not favour them, Mawrie said if there are “better candidates”, he cannot predict the outcome even as he hinted at the situations in Assam and Manipur where several sitting MLAs were not allotted party tickets.
Earlier, Mawrie had said that the party has not been communicated on whether suspended Congress MLA Mohendro Rapsang is interested to join the party or not.
Admitting that he has seen the statement made by BJP MLA AL Hek that legislators Mohendro Rapsang and HM Shangpliang may join the party, Mawrie said, “It is his personal statement, we don’t have any communication whether Rapsang is willing to join us or not.”
He maintained that if sitting MLAs join the party, it is not necessary that they will be allotted tickets, while adding that party procedures have to be followed.
On the much-awaited polls, the State BJP president said the party has formed the election manifesto committee and he contentious inner line permit (ILP) will be part of the manifesto.
Mawrie has also stated that the party will not have a pre-poll alliance and fight alone.
“According to the wish of our leaders, we want to put better candidates with potential who have the winnability quality. Central leaders also want the BJP to form the government in 2023 election,” he said.
