By Bhogtoram Mawroh
The recent victory of Mehtab Chandee Sangma, wife of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, in the Gambegre by-poll reinforces the dominance that the NPP has built for itself in the present Meghalaya Assembly. With this victory, the party has now reached 32 seats in the 60-seat assembly, exceeding the simple majority by one seat. For NPP to win the next assembly election, all they need to do is concentrate on maintaining their dominance in Garo Hills where they won 2/3rd of the seats. As things stand right now, there will be a fracturing of mandate from the Khasi region, and this will give the party an edge in future government formation.
UDP, the second largest party in the state, are coalition partners within the MDA. Unless they not only increase their seats in the Khasi region, but expand and get a few seats in the Garo region, they will always play second fiddle to the NPP. The mini revival of Congress with Saleng Sangma’s win in the recent MP election has hit a roadblock with this loss in Gambegre, the constituency which was left vacant after he won the Tura MP seat. TMC will do well to keep the 5 seats it won last election. Then there’s the VPP which scored an impressive victory in the MP election by winning the Shillong seat with 55% of the vote share. They would like to believe that they can win if not all but most of the seats in the Khasi region and thus be in pole position to form the government. It will not be easy because they will have to contest each of the 36 constituencies individually, making the credibility of each candidate crucial. This has become more challenging as issues have emerged, which give strength to the perception that all is not right within the Party and it is beset by disciplinary and structural issues.
In its brief existence, the VPP has become known for its many disciplinary issues over the past few years. People may have forgotten it, but the earliest incidence on ill-discipline against the party was from Mayborn Grace Lyngdoh, who had stood for elections from the Pynthorumkhrah constituency in the 2023 assembly elections. He secured the third position in the election with 21% of the vote share. Pynshngainlang Syiem, who won 25%, and Alexander Laloo Hek, who received 35% of the votes and ultimately won, were placed ahead of him. This was a very remarkable achievement for a first-time candidate, especially given his age. There was a lot of expectations that he might be the MP candidate for the party and he also tried his best to project himself as one. The buzz around his candidacy was so strong that the VPP had to come out with a statement that there has been no choice made and eventually Ricky Syngkon was announced as the canidate to quell the speculations.
Ricky eventually went and won the MP election with a handsome margin. Could Mayborn have won the election if the party had given him the ticket? I think he would have won considering the people were voting for the Party and not for the person. Ricky had previously lost the MLA election from Umsning by coming in fourth overall with only 16% of the vote share. In time, Mayborn could have been a strong candidate and eventually wrested Pynthorumkhrah from Hek. But then an audio file surfaced, revealing him criticising the party’s leadership and the way they handled the reservation agitation. As a result, the Party sidelined him, and his promising political career ended prematurely.
The second high profile disciplinary issue that the Party had to face was from Avner Pariat, who had contested the MLA election from East Shillong. He came fourth with 11% of the vote share, but in a tight race he actually helped Ampareen Lyngdoh by breaking up the vote. She won by just 1711 votes while Avner got 1974 votes. But in the long run, he was ready to make a strong bid for the district council elections, which are just around the corner. Then, just after the VPP won the MP election, news broke that they had expelled him for anti-party activities. He was later joined by Shanlang Warjri, member of the state executive committee and Kherup Sing Thabah, a member of the Party. Avner challenged the Party’s decision, saying that he had resigned before they expelled him. In fact, he had been thinking of leaving the party for over a month and did not want to disturb the party’s preparation for the MP election. The expulsion came to him as a surprise, but a look at the letter shows why the party felt threatened by his resignation. In his letter, he criticised the “party’s shift towards Religious Fanaticism … (and) a regressive agenda that he could no longer support in good conscience.” The letter is a damning indictment of the party’s politics and its credibility in standing up for secular, democratic and liberal ethos. By expelling him, the party wanted to discredit Avner and his letter, in case it was ever to leak out.
Then now there’s the latest controversy where Adelbert Nongrum, MLA of North Shillong, has accused the party of not taking his inputs and practicing favouritism in allocating tickets for the upcoming district council elections. Including a relative of a top party official in the list of candidates raises questions about whether the party used nepotism in ticket distribution. The chief complaint Adelbert had was the decision to announce Strong Pillar Kharjana from the Mawkhar-Pynthorumkhrah constituency. The Party tried to defend itself stating that it followed procedures while arrivin at the decision and also claimed that in a recent meeting with the North Shillong unit, the party workers have given their support to their choice. However, Shngain Syiemlieh, Vice President of the unit, challenged this claim, accusing the party of trying to use the attendance sheet as evidence that everyone supported their decision.
This, however, is not the first time that the party has humiliated Adelbert. He had in the past brought bills in the Assembly which were not supported by his own party members, leaving him embarrassed. So, the latest incident is nothing but a continuation of an effort within the party to undermine him. By putting their own candidate without any consultation, they wanted to send his unit the message that they must abandon Adelbert and be more loyal to the Party instead. By weakening him, they hoped it would make Adelbert more docile towards the party Supremo – Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit.
Both Adelbert and Ardent are big personalities. They started their careers with KSU and FKJGP and came together during the last assembly election. Adelbert was one of the last ones to join the Party, initially flirting with others before deciding to join VPP. He won his seat amidst a tight contest against BJP’s Mariahom Kharkrang. Ardent won his seat more comfortably taking 40% of the votes but this came after he had lost last the election before that. Within the VPP both are the only ones who have the experience of having won elections in the past. This is where the problem lies.
Ardent refers to himself a lot in his speeches, which is very similar to how Modi talks about himself in the third person during his own rallies. His outbursts in the assembly also show his aggressive posturing hinting (without internal knowledge of what happens in the party) at his overbearing demeanour and inability to entertain dissent and challenge within the party. I am sure there would be discussions on any issue, but in the end, he would make all the decisions. This would have really annoyed Adelbert, who would have wanted to share power and create a more balanced party. A clash was, therefore, inevitable. VPP has tried to project itself as a saviour of the Khasi community, promising to bring about a different politics. However, recent episodes have shown that it’s an old wine in a new bottle. One-upmanship (Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit’s zealous leadership), nepotism (ticket distribution for district council elections), lack of clarity over ideology (Avner Pariat’s joining and eventual resignation), and absence of a future road-map (the sidelining of Mayborn Grace Lyngdoh) proves that VPP is just another party beset by many contradictions. We still don’t know how they plan to manage the economy and lift us out of being one of the poorest states in the country. Even if the party does well in the upcoming district council elections, more controversies are likely to emerge in the future. In that scenario, the NPP and the other established parties will have the upper hand. Their unwillingness to form alliances will leave them isolated and without power. The party will not survive long if that happens.
(The views expressed in the article are those of the author and do not reflect in any way his affiliation to any organisation or institution)