SHILLONG, April 13: The ruling NPP, which has been maintaining a firm grip on the Tura parliamentary constituency for the past many years, has now set its sight on now winning the Shillong parliamentary seat and is planning to go all out to wrest it from sitting MP and Congress leader, Vincent H. Pala.
Making the intentions of the party clear, NPP leader and Cabinet Minister Rakkam A. Sangma on Thursday said, “In 2024, Shillong will see a new MP from the NPP.”
Asked what makes him so sure about NPP winning the Shillong seat, Sangma said, “NPP is a national party and the way this government has performed in its last tenure and the numbers of MLAs that we have today is a testimony to the growing clout of the party.”
“NPP is a national as well as a tribal-centric party and it is the right party to represent people of the Northeast in Parliament,” he said.
The Shillong Lok Sabha seat has traditionally been a Congress bastion with the party managing to hold sway since the general elections in 1998 when party candidate Paty Ripple Kyndiah won the seat and followed it up with victories in the 1999 and 2004 elections. Pala won the seat first in 2008 and retained the seat again in 2014 and 2019.
On the other hand, the Tura seat has been with Purno A. Sangma’s family since 1977 except for a brief period of two years between 1989 and 1991 when Sanford Marak of the Congress was the MP.
