SHILLONG, Oct 11: The Bharatiya Janata Party which is reeling under a bittersweet relationship with its dominant ally — the National People’s Party (NPP) — in the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) Government, made a big announcement of fielding candidates in all the 60 seats in next year’s assembly elections, due in less than five months.
State BJP president Ernest Mawrie on Tuesday said the party would contest in all the 60 seats. The BJP would do well in the state as the people are happy with the implementation of schemes announced by the BJP-led central government, he said.
The BJP’s announcement seems to be one of “high confidence” considering that the party had fielded candidates in 47 seats in the last assembly elections in 2018 and won just two — Alexander Laloo Hek from Pynthorumkhrah and Sanbor Shullai from South Shillong.
Chief Minister and NPP national president Conrad K Sangma had “unceremoniously” removed Hek from the Cabinet and installed the latter in July last year.
Govt tweaking central schemes for political gain
Virtually kicking off its poll campaign on Tuesday, the state BJP accused the MDA Government of changing the names of central welfare schemes for political gains. “A mass awareness shall be carried out against the central welfare schemes whose names have been changed by the state government for political mileage,” Mawrie said.
He said the BJP undertook its pre-poll campaign with back-to-back meetings of 55 mandal committees. The main agenda of these meetings was to form booth-level committees to explore the possibilities of victory of the party candidates in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Mawrie said the meeting attracted hundreds of people in Mawkynrew, Pynursla, Rambrai, Ampati, Salmanpara, Songsak, Chokpot, Jirang, Nongpoh and other places where the BJP had little or no presence in the past.
He said the party which had no candidates in Nongthymmai and Shillong East saw hundreds of people joining as karyakartas.
The BJP chief said the party would apply a reverse model in the constituencies where booth-level committees have been completed by October. This will be done by strengthening the organisation at the mandal and booth levels for fielding strong candidates, he added.
Mawrie said BJP national president JP Nadda is likely to visit Shillong soon to address booth meetings of various mandals.
“The end of October has been set as the target for the formation of booth-level committees across the state,” he said, adding that a door-to-door campaign will be conducted for creating awareness about the need to vote the BJP to power.
During the mandal meetings, BJP leaders said the elections will be focussed on several core issues related to the teachers’ plight, vacancies in government jobs, discrepancies in central schemes and aid given to the state government.
“Our karyakartas shall spread the message that Meghalaya can develop only if the BJP is voted to power because the party rules at the Centre,” he said.
Among those who joined the saffron camp was Bhayes Chyrmong, the East Jaintia Hills district president of KHNAM.
Chyrmong said he was inspired by the policies of the BJP government at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that he now believes that the BJP is the only political party that can truly uplift the standard of living of the people of Meghalaya.
He urged the people to judge the party only on the basis of the work it is doing, and not on the basis of unfounded rumours that other political parties are constantly spreading against the BJP.
