SHILLONG, Feb 19: NPP national president Conrad K Sangma has downplayed a campaign against the NPP stating that the views on social media do not reflect the voice of the people at large.
Sangma said many sections of society which either do not have access to or are not that active on social media.
“Any views on social media are not an opinion of the majority of the populace. I would say large sections of the people are actually not as active on social media,” Sangma said.
The NPP supremo disagreed with the notion that the NPP has failed to do well in last year’s Assembly polls.
“I beg to differ because we ended up being the single-largest party in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region. We got almost 3.18 lakh votes in the last elections, which is the highest among all political parties. Hence, it would be incorrect to say that we did not get the response,” Sangma said.
Admitting that the party could not convert these votes into seats, he however said that there were about three to four seats which the party lost by very narrow margins.
“These things happen in elections. We need to understand that politics is not about just one election. We keep on building the party. As I said, compared to the previous elections, we have fared much better in 2023. And we are hopeful we will do far better in the coming elections, especially in the Lok Sabha polls,” he added.
The CM also stated that many leaders from different political parties are joining the NPP. On the two Congress MDCs shifting base to the NPP in KHADC, Conrad held an indifferent stance. He said it is not just Congress but leaders from other parties are also joining the NPP. “Politics always will have this kind of situations where depending on the scenario, different leaders will join different political parties, and this is normal in politics,” the NPP chief said.
With regard to preparations for the upcoming MP elections, Conrad said that the NPP’s party organisation is very active. “We are happy to see the positive trend. I am sure that this positive trend of people joining the party will definitely have an impact in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections,” he added.
