By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 22: The BJP has named the party’s state vice president and Tura MDC, Bernard N Marak as its candidate for the upcoming Gambegre bypoll.
Following the announcement, the BJP has scheduled a meeting on Wednesday with Anil K Antony, the party’s spokesperson and national secretary in charge of Meghalaya, to prepare the campaign roadmap.
The state BJP chief spokesperson, Mariahom Kharkrang said Marak’s name was selected from a list of three aspirants for the seat.
He said all the units and wings of the party have been activated for the campaign. He admitted that the electoral battle in Gambegre would be tough against the NPP’s Mehtab Chandee, the wife of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, and TMC candidate Sadhiarani Sangma, an MDC in the GHADC.
He, however, said the BJP would put up a strong fight as Marak is also an MDC and his popularity helped the party gain ground over the year.
Independent candidate Sengkrabirth M Marak became the first candidate on Tuesday to file his nomination for the bypoll. The 26-year-old is a post graduate in Garo from ICFAI.
Sadhiarani Sangma and Chandee are expected to file their nomination papers on October 24 and October 25 respectively. The chief minister and other top NPP leaders will accompany the latter for the formality.
The Congress candidate, Jingjang M. Marak, will file his papers on October 24. He is close to the Tura MP.
The last date for filing nominations for Gambegre is October 25, and the papers must be scrutinized by October 28.
Will fight for good
governance: Bernard
Soon after his nomination as the BJP candidate, Marak said the party would fight the by-election for good governance, to empower the rural folks through grassroots democracy, and to end corruption which, according to him, has made life miserable for the people in Gambegre.
“The people of Gambegre will have to choose between corruption and good governance. The poor and honest people of the constituency have been victims of bad governance and diversion of development funds. All those who have been deprived by the leaders of the ruling government will vote for BJP,” he said.
“Gambegre is a tribal constituency and it will be an uphill task but the groundwork we did will give interesting figures against the political giants who have dominated this constituency in the past. Our vision for Gambegre is to transform this constituency into a pro-development constituency rather than an underdeveloped constituency,” he said.
According to Marak, successive governments deprived the people of Gambegre of basic needs such as water, houses, employment, opportunities, and ration cards. The irregularities in NREGA, JJM, PMGSY, PMAY, IHHL, NRLM, old age, widow, and disabled pensions would be dealt with in Gambegre, he added.