SHILLONG:
East Shillong MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh has said that every ruling party goes to polls with the baggage of anti-incumbency.
“There will be some amount of anti-incumbency which has to be dealt with accordingly. I have been in various governments and there has never been an election where we have had an absolute clean sheet and where there has been no such baggage,” Lyngdoh, a former cabinet minister when Mukul Sangma was the chief minister, said.
Lyngdoh along with the four other remaining Congress MLAS were suspended from the party recently for joining the NPP-led MDA government, which also has the BJP in its fold.
She said that the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government has done a lot of good things, but may also not have done well in a few areas.
She also said that at the end of the day a government which has done a lot of good things should be appreciated and the five suspended Congress legislators have gone there with an intention to strengthen it.
“That’s the reason we thought as Congress Legislature Party (CLP), we should go and join hands with the MDA government,” Lyngdoh said.
She also said that she hopes that the five Congress MLAs have achieved substantially in the last three-four months that they have been in the MDA.
“We have no regrets, and I don’t want to get into individual issues because it will not be in the fitness of things to comment in the media. But by and large I think our going with the MDA has been productive and positive,” Lyngdoh added.
She said that they have pretty much received the attention that they have not been receiving in the last four years.
Lyngdoh also hoped that their partnership with the MDA continues in the years to come even as she expressed optimism that the MDA will return to power in 2023.
The East Shillong MLA also said that one must remember that Meghalaya is a small state of 60 MLAs and when they partner with any government it is done with an intention to ensure that the constituencies they represent are part and parcel of developmental plans.
“I am happy with the way things are shaping up in my constituency. I don’t have too many deterrents in my evaluation of what I have done in the last five years. We have been able to achieve substantially despite the pressures of the pandemic,” she added.
She also said that the results of 2023 will be a clear demonstration as to whether or not moves made by her and her efforts are appreciated by her constituents.