By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 20: The Meghalaya BJP’s recent assertion that “no party will be able to form the government in Meghalaya without its support” seems to have emanated from the result of an internal survey conducted by the saffron party which projects the party as winning between 10 and 15 seats in the Assembly polls slated on February 27.
Revealing this here on Thursday, BJP State president Ernest Mawrie said that as per the party’s internal survey, the vote share of the BJP is likely to increase to 20-25% from the 9.7% vote share in the 2018 Assembly polls.
According to Mawrie, some of the potential seats for BJP are in Shillong and Tura, plain-belt areas of Garo Hills and few seats in Jaintia Hills as well as in Ri-Bhoi.
Mawrie even shared these details with the party high command during the recently concluded BJP national executive committee meeting.
According to Mawrie, more than one lakh people have joined the BJP during the recent enrolment drive carried out in the state and over 65,000 people have registered themselves through missed calls.
Informing that the party has received a total of 123 applications from aspiring candidates, he admitted that there are multiple aspiring candidates in many constituencies like Dalu, Mahendraganj and North Shillong.
Defending the delay in releasing the list of candidates, he said that BJP, being a national party, can declare the names only after the announcement of the poll schedule. He said that even Congress has not yet officially announced its candidates and only the regional parties have declared the names of their candidates.
When asked about the allegations as to why the BJP was not following up on issues of corruption in the MDA, he said it was he who had pointed out to the scams in the MeECL and in the GHADC.
Mawrie also said that West Bengal has failed in development and there is no development in that state ruled by the Trinamool Congress.
Meanwhile, sources close to the BJP disclosed that during the recent core committee meeting of the party, some leaders had insisted that the BJP should start the poll proceedings by announcing at least the first list of candidates.
The sources also admitted that the BJP was finding it tough to finalise the names of candidates in several constituencies due to the problem of there being multiple ticket aspirants.
There are as many as five aspirants for the Dalu ticket while in the crucial North Shillong seat “rivals” Mariahom Kharkrang and Michael Kharsyntiew are adding to the party’s woes.
Two heavyweights – sitting MDC Dormonath Sangma and Rahinath Barchung – are eyeing the BJP ticket from Tikrikilla while in Mahendraganj, BJP vice president Bernard Marak’s younger brother Tinku Marak and Bakul Hajong are fighting it out to secure the ticket.
It may be added here that even in the 2018 Assembly polls, the BJP was the last to release the name of its candidates leading many aspirants to question and lament the delay on the part of the party to announce their names.
BJP sources said the party’s state election committee would sit in a day or two to scrutinise the applications following which the names will be forwarded to the BJP parliamentary election committee for approval.