By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 15: Continuing its tradition started by PA Sangma, the National Peoples’ Party (NPP) on Friday kicked off its poll campaign from Adokgre in North Garo Hills.
It may be mentioned that Adokgre, named as ‘Chenanggre’ or land of victory, had been the ground for poll campaigns for Purno Sangma. In 2016, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma took over as national president of the NPP and has continued the tradition to date.
All bigwigs of the NPP, including state NPP president Prestone Tynsong, Rajya Sabha member Dr WR. Kharlukhi, state working president of NPP Marcuise Marak, among others, assembled at Adokgre to kick off the poll campaign.
Both the candidates of the NPP — Ampareen Lyngdoh for Shillong and Agatha Sangma for Tura parliamentary constituencies — were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said, “Be it MP, MLA or MDC elections, our father PA Sangma always began his campaign from Adokgre because he believed in victory and hence the name of Chenanggre.”
He said that Meghalaya in general, and Garo Hills in particular, has witnessed quite a transformation in the last six years. “Earlier, if roads were good then the belief was that the area belonged to Assam, while bad roads indicated Garo Hills. That is no longer the case,” he said.
Maintaining that the Lok Sabha election is important for NPP, a confident Conrad said that the margin of victory this year will surpass that of the 1.90 lakh victory margin when he had contested the bypoll following his father’s demise in 2016.
“I am confident we will have the biggest margin of victory in this election, which will be nothing short of 2.50 lakh or even 3 lakh margin,” he said.