By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 31: Deputy Chief Minister and NPP national vice president, Prestone Tynsong was on Monday appointed the state president of the party by national president and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma at the party office here on Tuesday.
Soon after his appointment, the newly-appointed state president has prioritised reconstituting the various NPP committees ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
“My priority is to reconstitute the party’s state-level committee. After that, we will go down to district and block levels as we have to prepare ourselves for the upcoming elections,” Tynsong said.
Stating that the NPP wants to work hard to reach out to each and every household in the state, Tynsong said reconstituting the party’s state-level committee is important and once that is done, the party will be able to work out the next programme.
Sangma said it is an important day for NPP’s Meghalaya unit.
“As you are all aware that a few months back, our state president (Dr Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi) requested me he would like to be relieved from the post. I requested him to continue till we appoint a new president within this time,” Sangma said.
“After that request from Dr Kharlukhi, I had started a series of consultations with party leaders and finally, came to the conclusion and final decision. On behalf of the party and all members of its state unit, I would like to thank Dr Kharlukhi for having served the party for 16 years,” he added.
Kharlukhi, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, said, “We were working together all along as a family and because of that, we came to power for two terms. I have no doubt on the leadership of Bah Prestone. We will work together and come back again in 2028 with an absolute majority”. He added, “Bah Prestone is a veteran of many battles. He has won five Assembly elections and has been a minister and deputy chief minister. I think with all his experience, he is the best person to be the party’s state president.”
LS polls: NPP to names candidates by Nov
Tynsong also informed that the NPP will announce the names of its two candidates for next year’s Lok Sabha elections by November. He said the party is working on the ground.
“We have already planned it out but, of course, a transition has taken place as I took over today from Dr WR Kharlukhi. However, that is not a hurdle or issue,” Tynsong said.
He said he will continue with whatever has been done by Kharlukhi and the agenda put in place by party leaders throughout the state.
Asked if Tura MP Agatha Sangma will contest from the seat, he said NPP leaders will abide by party’s decision.
On reports of NPP approaching Trinamool Congress vice president George Lyngdoh to contest on its ticket, Tynsong said, “Not necessarily that we approach George.”
“Our door is open. They do approach us. We are sitting down and we will collect detailed information from across the state, be it Tura or Shillong,” he said.
Talking about MDC polls, he said, “We are still working out. We want to immediately constitute a full-fledged state-level committee and district committees because we want the names of the candidates to be recommended from all districts.”
The NPP could not perform well in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region in the last Assembly elections. Tynsong said it could not win a good number of seats despite securing a vote share of around 31 per cent.
Talking about NPP activities in other parts of Northeast, he said, “We have our units in each state and they are functioning well. If we don’t contest elections once, it does not mean we do not have units.”
Kharlukhi said it is only through a combined force of all MPs from Northeast that the voice of the region can be heard in Parliament.
“Until and unless you have 15-20 MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, that voice will not be heard,” he said, adding, “I do not believe in the narrow idea of dividing the Northeast. All of us should come together for our voice to be heard.”
Asked how difficult it is for him to raise the issues of the state in Parliament, he said, “Raising voice in the Rajya Sabha is not a problem. The only thing is you just have to fill up the form and you will get zero hours. It is only there that you can raise your voice.”
He said Congress’ state chief and Shillong MP Vincent Pala and Agatha also raised many issues.
Citing how during the row over Citizenship (Amendment) Bill Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma called a meeting in Guwahati and all the Northeast chief ministers attended it, Kharlukhi said the result was that CAA was not introduced in Meghalaya.