From Saurav Borah
BYRNIHAT (JIRANG): Sitting MLA of 10 Jirang Legislative Assembly Constituency, Sosthenes Sohtun of National Peoples’ Party (NPP) is confident of retaining this key border seat claiming that the people of the constituency are happy with the development work done during his term even as close to two years have been affected by the pandemic.
Speaking to The Shillong Times after casting his vote at a polling station here on Monday, Sohtun said, “I am 100 percent sure of retaining the seat. During the past term (about two years of which was affected by COVID-19) the NPP-led MDA government has done an excellent job for the overall development of the constituency.”
“So people will look at the work done, In fact, some people have since yesterday been calling me, saying that we have seen development during the past five years and so we will vote for you,” the 48-year-old MLA said.
Jirang is one of 20 Assembly seats won by the NPP in the 2018 elections. The victory for Sohtun was slender then (five years back), having defeated Congress’ Witness Day Sancley by a margin of just 220 votes.
This time, his battle is primarily against a much younger Congress candidate, Adrian Lambert Mylliem (29), even as there are six more candidates in the fray.
However, Sohtun predicts a win by a bigger margin than last time.
“Last time, yes we had two very strong candidates. In western Ri Bhoi district, we had one local candidate (from the Congress). However, in the eastern part of Ri Bhoi district, I was the only (local) candidate they were supporting. This time, about 60 percent of those main party workers of Congress are joining, supporting and working for the NPP. So obviously, we are winning by a big margin.” he said.
This time, Jirang constituency has a total electorate of 41921 voters, with 21275 male and 20646 female.
Regarding the competition this time, he said that there are eight candidates in the fray.
“But I don’t see the emergence of young leaders in parties such as BJP and TMC as a threat. Because the youth are with me and all the people of Jirang are with me. The people of the constituency know very well what I have done for them during the past five years,” Sohtun reiterated.
On the prospects of a new party like the AITC (Trinamool Congress) or, for that matter, BJP taking away some portion of the vote share of NPP, he said, “During the campaign, it looked like that the TMC and BJP might take away some votes. But I have the people and their support.”
On the unhappiness expressed by some sections over the border MoU signed with Assam, he said that the real picture on the ground was different. “If you go and ask the people in the border areas, they are more or less happy with it,” Sohtun said.
On the issue of corruption which was the buzzword among the Opposition parties this election, “In the run-up to an election, they (Opposition) will always blame the ruling party. Anti-incumbency might be there but it will not affect our chances. The people of Jirang know that since the time I was elected as an MLA I was always connected with them,” he said.
Asked about the work done by Sohtun in the past term, a 34-year-old voter at Harli Bagan said that during COVID-19, the MLA had helped many poor people in the constituency with food items and sanitisers.
“After the pandemic, he has done many things, including blacktopping a key interior road connecting Upper Bagan (via Dehal) the highway at Byrnihat. He has renovated a stadium and built a gallery there in Nongrim,” the resident said.