SHILLONG, April 12: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) has lodged a complaint with the election department against the “unfounded” allegation made by National People’s Party (NPP) leader and Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council’s Chief Executive Member, Pyniaid Sing Syiem that the VPP caused law and order situations during the NPP’s election meetings.
VPP election agent Danny Langstieh said Syiem made the allegation on April 6 and 9 while campaigning for his party at Rynjah in East Khasi Hills district and Umsning in Ri-Bhoi district.
“We request your office to take necessary actions as per rules. Also, we would like to lodge a complaint against the high-handedness and physical abuse made by the people present in the NPP meeting against the ordinary citizens for mere sloganeering on the symbol of the VPP,” Langstieh stated in his complaint lodged with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) BDR Tiwari.
In a separate letter to the CEO, the VPP election agent said according to information received by the party workers, there is a likelihood that attempts would be made by anti-social elements with vested interest to interfere with the process of free and fair conduct of election in the state, especially in Jaintia Hills.
“There is a likelihood that proxy voting may take place if the polling officials are not vigilant and committed to the task of ensuring free and fair election. In view of the above, the party strongly urges you to take necessary steps to ensure that free and fair election should not be disturbed and that the electorate should be able to cast their votes without any fear and that proxy voting should never happen,” he added.
VPP chief Ardent M Basaiawmoit dismissed the allegation about causing disturbances to other candidates during campaigning. He dared the NPP leaders to back their charge with evidence.
“It is laughable…They can allege anything but they have to provide proof. I cannot just blame anyone. They have to prove that we are responsible and we engineered this kind of sloganeering,” Basaiawmoit said.
“The meetings were conducted in public spaces and you cannot expect only the members of the VPP or the supporters of the VPP to be there. This is a part of their dirty politics where they accuse us of indulging in such politics. We will never indulge in such cheap and dirty politics,” he said.
He reminded, “The whole state witnessed how we carried out the protest. Despite the presence of a huge crowd, there was not even a single stray incident. We are not such people”.
“In politics, they have no job to do. They know they are losing the battle and they just want to make unnecessary complaints without having any proof. We never organised or instruct our people to cause disturbance. We just carried out our own thing,” he added.
He further said, “Even in our meetings, there will be many wrong people who sometimes create problems and shout while we are delivering our speech. But what can we do? It is public space. We just tell them to keep quiet.”
