No applicant for party tickets, says lone party legislator
SHILLONG: The Congress has yet again eclipsed its coalition partner NCP, this time in the GHADC polls, like in the case of Chokpot by poll in June.
NCP which has significant presence in Garo Hills will not put up any candidates for the GHADC polls, as no one has applied for the party tickets, confirmed lone NCP legislator Marthon Sangma on Sunday.
Curiously, Marthon’s wife Jinggie D Shira is contesting from the Congress for the GHADC polls from Damas constituency.
When contacted, Marthon said that NCP had no other choice since no one had applied for the party ticket. He also added that there was no direction from the higher-ups to field candidates for the polls.
Asked why he allowed his wife to contest from the Congress instead of fielding her from his own party, Marthon said, “It was her choice to contest from the Congress. I have no role in it. Moreover, she did not apply for ticket from NCP.”
Though the NCP leader from Mendipathar is silent on the Congress-NCP understanding in the GHADC polls, a ‘hidden pact’ was evident even during the Chokpot bye-election.
Congress legislator Bluebell R Sangma, who successfully contested from Chokpot in the by-poll held in June this year, had first applied for NCP ticket. She had even forwarded her name to NCP legislator Marthon then. But she later contested and won from the Congress.
Sources said neither the Congress nor the NCP want to admit their hidden understanding since they are coalition partners, but the ‘close relationship’ is said to have begun after party chief Sanbor Shullai ‘sacrificed’ his post of Deputy Speaker in March this year to save Speaker A.T. Mondal and indirectly Chief Minister Mukul Sangma from the no-confidence motion.