SHILLONG, Jan 17: In this early election propaganda, allegations of corruption in high places are in the air. The principal target of opposition TMC’s tirade is Chief Minister Conrad Sangma who has so far restrained himself from joining issues.
On Tuesday, his elder brother and cabinet minister James PK Sangma came up with the first response to such allegations.
Although he did not directly speak on the issue of corruption, he summarily dismissed Trinamool Congress’ tirade particularly in Garo Hills. James downplayed the criticism by TMC saying the opposition was just making noise and “that noise will not have any impact on the outcome of the polls in the Garo Hills region, as far as the ruling side is concerned”.
Speaking to media persons on Tuesday, James said claimed that the NPP is on a strong wicket in Garo Hills whereas TMC has never tested the water of contesting polls in Meghalaya.
“I see TMC as a lot of noise but only results will tell us what kind of impact their noise will make and I think the impact will not be much,” Sangma said.
Stating that the NPP is not over-confident even though they are ruling, he said that other individuals and political parties are attacking Chief Minister Conrad Sangma because they are intimidated by the work he has done in Tura and a lot of infrastructure development has take place there.
“It is not surprising to see some people who have nothing better to go on verbal assault on the Chief Minister and it does not worry us,” said James.
When asked about the allegations that most of the contract works in Tura goes to NPP leaders and workers, he said that people get their work on their merit and if they meet the criteria, they should get the work.
It may be mentioned that the chief minister is being repeatedly attacked by Opposition parties and even those in ruling like BJP have slammed him on several occasions.
The chief minister is also coming under heavy attack from his opponents in the constituency from the likes of BJP’s Bernard Marak and UDP’s John Leslee K Sangma.
