SHILLONG:
State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Ernest Mawrie, on April 3, pointed that two factors played a major role in the party’s dismal performance in the recently concluded Meghalaya elections, one being that the party was denied credit for Central schemes in the state, and the other being the Covid lockdown.
“Though the BJP government provided so many central schemes in the state like free gas connections, free rice, PM Kisan Nidhi Scheme, JJM, and others, but the advantage and credit were taken by some other party,” Mawrie told media persons over the party’s poor show in the state.
Pointing that reaching out to people during lockdown was another major factor for the BJP, Mawrie said, “Though we have organisations in all the district and mandal levels, we could not reach people at the grassroots level because of so many restrictions. I took over as the president in 2020, after that I had time only for a month, and the lockdown was imposed. So, reaching the masses became difficult during those times.”
Mawrie, however maintained that the BJP’s vote share has gone up in the state compared to previous elections, stating that in every district people have voted for BJP.
Asked if the party’s anti-Christan tag also played a role in its failure, Mawrie, said that the anti-christin tag of BJP is highlighted only 3-4 months before elections, and nobody speaks about it the whole year, which is just a propaganda.
“BJP is not against any religion, and believes in secularism, but still I don’t know here in the North Eastern states, including Meghalaya, people still tag us as anti-Christian, which is not true at all,” he said.
When asked why the BJP decided to work with the National People’s Party (NPP), while dubbing Meghalaya as the most corrupt state, and when BJP is against corruption, Mawrie said that the order came from the centre.