By Our Reporter
Shillong, Nov 10: MPCC working president, PN Syiem on Friday stated that he does not anticipate any of the party’s sitting MDCs defecting to another party before the district council elections scheduled for next year.
Rejecting rumours that some party MDCs would defect to the NPP, Syiem declared, “The Congress is currently the only alternative party in the state. I don’t see anyone will take a risk to jump to any other party.”
He stated that a lot of people are closely monitoring the results of the upcoming Assembly elections in Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana.
If the party does well in the elections in these states, there is a chance that many will request the Congress ticket to run in the next district council election, the MPCC working president stated.
In response to reports that certain MDCs, such as Batskhem Ryntathiang, the party’s sitting MDC from Mairang, may join other political parties, MPCC president Vincent H Pala had recently commented, “I don’t know because the Mairang MDC did attend the party meeting (held recently).” I am unable to predict whether someone will join other parties because the district council does not have an anti-defection policy.”
While revealing that numerous leaders from the Khasi-Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills regions had approached the party to express their interest in running for the Congress, he asserted, “I cannot say if one or two will leave the party but the fact is that many have also called me to join the party ahead of the elections.”
Syiem, in the meantime, stated that the party has not yet started the application process for party tickets.
He believes that the Congress does not need to move quickly because it already has a sound system of party organisation down to the local level.
“Once we initiate the process for application of the party ticket, we will have recommendations of the party candidates from both the block congress committees and district congress committees in no time,” Syiem said.
Prior to this, Pala had declared that the party is prepared for the next year’s MDC and Lok Sabha elections.
“Whether the election is place in February or at another time, we are prepared to take on the challenge. The state administration will determine how to handle this,” Pala had stated.
In order to expedite the process of forwarding their recommendations for candidates to the KHADC and the JHADC for the next elections, he added the party will also be writing to all the blocks.
Pala claims that the process actually begins in November and that a list is created in December, at which point the candidates are announced in conjunction with the election results.
The state election committee and district election committees are still in place and will soon select the candidates, according to the MPCC chief.
Nonetheless, he stated that the MP and MDC elections would use the same candidate selection procedure.
“The party has no objection to that so long as the rules allow MLAs to contest ADC elections,” the Congress leader added, asserting that MLAs are also eligible to apply for a ticket in the upcoming ADC polls.
