SHILLONG:
If NPP leader and Assembly Deputy Speaker Timothy D Shira is to be believed then opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and Congress will have to taste a bitter pill in the 2023 assembly elections in the state.
Citing past experience, the sitting legislator from Resubelpara said that AITC and Congress will lose while recalling the National People’s Party’s fate in the 2013 polls.
“We changed our allegiance to NPP, which was then a new entrant in Meghalaya, and we lost as we managed to get only two persons elected as MLAs from Songsak and Dadenggre while other candidates were defeated,” Shira said.
He expressed confidence that the NPP would sweep the elections and expected the party to win not less than 17 seats from the Garo Hills region.
“The reason why we are going to get more seats this time is that we are the ruling party and we have done good work,” he claimed.
Shira also pointed out that Congress was a divided house and does not have a single MLA now.
He, however, still rated Congress higher than AITC as it is a very old party that has taken roots in the minds of the people whereas the latter is a new entrant in state politics.
When asked, the NPP leader said the Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Mukul Sangma will win if he contests from Ampati, which was his original constituency before he resigned in 2018 to pave way for his elder daughter’s entry into politics and who is now the sitting MLA of Ampati.
“If he (Mukul) contests from Songsak, he will lose but most probably and in all likelihood, he will shift to Ampati otherwise he cannot save others or cannot even save his wife (Dikkanchi D Shira, MLA of Mahendraganj) and daughter,” he said.