NPP’s Gigur confident about defending Mawshynrut seat

NONGSTOIN, Jan 22: MLA and MDC of Mawshynrut Constituency, Gigur Myrthong, is confident about winning and retaining the seat in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Sunday, Myrthong said no party or candidate in the constituency is a threat to him.
He, however, said he is unsure about the number of votes he would secure in polls. According to him, he will need a maximum of 15,000 votes to win the elections.
So far, three names are in the fray for Mawshynrut constituency including NPP’s Gigur Myrthong.
The other two are Justine G Momin from TMC and Methodious Dkhar from the HSPDP.
The Congress is yet to announce their candidate from Mawshynrut.
According to political experts, Myrthong heads into polls as favourite and is expected to secure majority of the votes from the Garo community numbering nearly 10,000.
As per the previous general elections, the HSPDP won a few votes from the Garo populace in the constituency while the NPP won a sizeable number of votes from Garo electorates.
There are a total of 40,915 voters in Mawshynrut Constituency. They have been categorised under different categories, viz., Maram area (11,370), Garo area (9,844), Maweit area (6,290), Lyngngam area (6,194), and Nongtrai area (6,079).
According to political pundits, Methodius Dkhar from HSPDP may confidently secure vote from Maram and Nongtrai areas, while Gigur Myrthong would be able to woo people in Lyngam and Garo areas for their votes.
With regard to Maweit, the recently introduced Nongstoin-Maweit road project may become the reason for the electorates from this area to lean towards Myrthong, giving him an advantage.