3 UDP MDCs, two independents extend support to NPP-led team
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 24: The National People’s Party (NPP) is all set to lead the Executive Committee (EC) in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) with support from its ally United Democratic Party (UDP) and two others who won contesting as independent candidates.
Thombor Shiwat will take over as the Chief Executive Member (CEM).
The NPP bagged 13 seats in the JHADC. Support from the UDP, which won 3 seats, and the two independents—Violet Lyngdoh and Moonlight Pariat—will take the formation’s tally to 18 in the 29-member council. One member will be nominated to the House later.
The NPP huddled with its coalition partners at a meeting late Monday night. It was decided that Shiwat, who is an NPP MDC, will continue as the CEM. Lasky Rymbai of the UDP will also continue as the Deputy CEM. The entire list of the EMs has been worked out and it will be made known soon.
The NPP will stake a claim to form the EC shortly.
Following the major poll debacle in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), the NPP decided to emerge as a strong opposition party in the council where its archrival VPP will form the new EC.
NPP spokesperson HM Shangpliang told reporters the party with four MDCs will try to serve the people by playing the role of a strong opposition along with other partners.
“Definitely, we will need to introspect and find out where things went wrong. The party will be sitting in the coming days to introspect and review its performance in every constituency where it performed unexpectedly low,” Shangpliang said.
Refusing to admit the NPP has been wiped out in the KHADC elections, he said the party candidates stood second in many constituencies.
Asked if the mandate is against the NPP-led state government, he denied the narrative saying people probably looked for a change in the autonomous district councils.
“If there are lapses or drawbacks somewhere, we will try to find out and correct those,” he said.
He also dismissed the speculation that the mandate will affect the Conrad K Sangma-led government saying that a lot of government schemes are benefiting every section of the society.
Rajya Sabha member and former NPP state president WR Kharlukhi, who was tasked with handling the JHADC polls, said, “We worked as a team and because of which, we won 13 seats this time.”
He said the result was satisfactory. During the last Lok Sabha elections, there was a VPP wave and they had swept all the seven constituencies in the Jaintia Hills but the party did not have a similar performance this time around.
Talking about the KHADC, he said, “If you look at the last Lok Sabha election results, they won in 25 constituencies in Shillong but now they are down to 17.”
“We see victory even in defeat in the KHADC. We won four the last time and we got four seats this time,” he added.