Party clears air on North Shillong MLA’s favouritism charge
SHILLONG, Nov 19: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) on Tuesday clarified that its State Executive Committee (SEC) is the final authority for the allotment of tickets for the upcoming elections to the KHADC and JHADC.
Citing the party’s constitution, VPP spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh said there is no provision in the party for an MLA to recommend candidates.
“We have consciously framed the constitution to prevent any scope for an MLA to be consulted for the selection of candidates,” he said while reacting to the VPP’s North Shillong legislator, Adelbert Nongrum’s allegation about favouritism in the allotment of tickets for the ADC constituencies.
Nongrum had expressed unhappiness with the party’s decision to field Strong Pillar Kharjana from the Mawkhar-Pynthorumkhrah seat.
Myrboh said the SEC decided to allot party tickets based on the feedback received from the people.
He also said that it is a matter of convention they forwarded the names to the State Executive Committee for its approval.
“Our constitution says that the SEC will decide who to give a party ticket to. Any member of the party is expected to be disciplined and abide by the decisions of this committee,” he said.
Myrboh said the list of candidates for the Mawkhar-Pynthorumkhrah and Jaiaw constituencies was presented to the SEC before its meeting was scheduled on October 11. “We could not meet to decide since the North Shillong MLA was out of station.
So, the decision was deferred,” he said.
He said they discussed the matter in another meeting held on November 8, in which the North Shillong MLA was present.
Stating that Nongrum’s views were discussed in the meeting, he said the voice of the majority of the members of the SEC prevailed and the candidates for Mawkhar-Pynthorumkhrah and Jaiaw were selected.
“The accusation that the SEC did not consult or bypass anyone does not arise, since we function strictly by the constitution. I appeal to every member of the party to abide by the constitution of the party,” Myrboh said.
