By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 18: Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president Vincent H Pala said he does not foresee the Voice of the People Party (VPP) repeating its Lok Sabha performance in the upcoming district council elections.
The two elections are completely different, he told The Shillong Times on Wednesday.
“Four or five candidates vie for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat encompassing 36 Assembly segments. More than 150 candidates contest the 58 seats across the KHADC and JHADC,” Pala said.
He said the issues highlighted in the district council elections will be different from those during the parliamentary polls.
“The strategy to contest the council polls will be different. We will be able to focus on each constituency since we will make an effort to put up candidates in all of them,” the MPCC president said.
He said that the vote share of VPP in the Lok Sabha polls is similar to what he got when he had first contested in the 2009 election from Shillong, garnering about 53% of the total votes polled.
“The outcome of the Lok Sabha polls is always one-sided,” he said.
Pala insisted the VPP would not be a threat in the GHADC and JHADC polls.
“There is always a wave for a new political party. We saw that wave after the KHNAM and PDF were launched. We will have to see the fate of the VPP in the long run,” he said.
He said Congress will always have an edge since the party has a strong organisation down to the booth level.
“You may say the Congress is in its lowest phase. But if we manage to have the right candidates we have a strong chance to win more seats than the others,” Pala said.
He also said the state’s voters are wise and intelligent not to stick to a pattern. “I am not losing hope as I am confident that people will repose their faith in Congress in the upcoming council polls,” he added.
