From Our Correspondent
TURA, April 5: With Lok Sabha election two weeks away, TMC’s candidate for the Tura parliamentary constituency, Zenith Sangma, has claimed that the voters from Garo Hills are gradually shifting their support from the National People’s Party and that they want change.
Speaking in between his campaigns in the South Garo Hills region, Zenith asserted that a major chunk of votes would be coming to the TMC this Lok Sabha election.
Exuding confidence that people from Garo Hills would choose the TMC instead of NPP, he said, “There is a lot of erosion of Congress voters as well, and these are coming to us. Further, with the decision of the BJP to not field a candidate, the 90,000 vote share of the party will be the decisive factor in the upcoming polls on April 19,” said Zenith.
He added that though the central leadership of the BJP had asked its party members to support the NPP in the coming election, this was being vehemently opposed in the state and the grassroots leaders were now starting to rally behind the TMC.
“They have faith in the leadership of Dr Mukul Sangma and they are determined to support the TMC. We are confident that although we don’t have money as compared with other parties, we are getting blessings from everywhere across Garo Hills,” said the TMC leader.
Casting aspersions on NPP’s Tura candidate Agatha Sangma on the issue of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Zenith accused the former of betraying the people of Meghalaya.
“She had campaigned last time on the agenda of going against the Bill but she herself supported it. The people of Garo Hills will not forget. There were lots of protests that took place in the state after her act. They even gheraoed the Raj Bhavan in Shillong with massive protests in Garo Hills as well. The Conrad Sangma-led government did not pay heed to the protests,” said Zenith.
He further claimed that when the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed, Congress candidate Saleng Sangma, who was then with the NCP and supported the previous government, had lent his support to the then Conrad Sangma government. This, he said, proved that they were in the whole thing through thick and thin.
“Today Conrad may be saying that there will be no impact on Meghalaya but I want to ask him when the CAA is actually implemented and various people from different countries start procuring citizenship and start settling near Meghalaya, will there not be influx in our state? There are definite negative ramifications to CAA and NRC in our state,” he asserted.