Shillong, Sept 5: Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) working president PN Syiem on Thursday admitted that the Congress will struggle to get candidates for all the 29 seats in the upcoming Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) elections after the recent setback that it suffered.
Dealing a blow to the Congress, three MLAs had deserted the party to join the NPP.
“It is not going to be easy to get the candidates in all 29 seats after the resignation of the three MLAs,” Syiem said.
He said the Congress will not face any problem in 50% of the seats but it has to be cautious while selecting candidates in the remaining 50% seats.
“We cannot give a ticket to anyone who applies for it. We should first see if he has the prospects to win. It will be futile if we field candidate just for the sake of it,” Syiem said.
He felt that two parties which people will put their faith in are the VPP and the Congress. According to him, there are strong possibilities that the Congress will do well if it manages to get the right candidates.
“The Congress is now in a different space and it is no longer like before. We cannot take any decision in a rush since it may backfire,” the MPCC working president said.
He said the political situation is very critical for the Congress.
“We understand that people are looking at the Congress as an alternative to change the political dynamics of the state,” he said.
‘Difficult to attend to any fresh petitions on delimitation’
Syiem said the KHADC will find it difficult to attend to any fresh petitions relating to the reorganisation of constituencies due to time constraints.
He said the matter is also no longer within the control of the council’s Executive Committee (EC) since the Governor has already approved the KHADC (Constitution of District Council) (Amendment) Rules, 2024, thereby paving the way for the delimitation of constituencies ahead of the polls.
Twenty-one villages under three polling stations are not willing to be attached to Rambrai-Jyrngam. They want to remain with the Mawshynrut constituency.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC), a conglomerate of the 21 villages, submitted a petition to the KHADC after it had passed the amendment rules. The JAC threatened that it would boycott the election if the council fails to respect people’s sentiments.
The KHADC had also received petitions from Synjuk Nongsynshar Shnong of Maweit area and Sordar of Mawmarit as they are also opposing the delimitation exercise.
Syiem, who is also the Deputy Chief Executive Member of KHADC, said it will be difficult to move back since the District Council Affairs (DCA) department has already initiated the process to hold the elections.
He said the EC will face difficulties in entertaining petitions due to paucity of time.
“It is not easy since the EC will need to reintroduce the amendment rules in the House if any changes have to be made,” Syiem said, adding not just the council, the DCA department, Governor’s Secretariat and State Election Commission are also involved.
Meanwhile, he said the amendment of the Sixth Schedule is not far away. Once it happens, the number of seats in the KHADC will increase from 29 to 35.
“We will try to address the concerns of various villages once the amendment of the Sixth Schedule gets the nod of the Parliament,” Syiem said.
