Our Special Correspondent
TURA:
Good tidings appear to be drifting away from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had been claiming and expecting to win big in the Garo Hills region where 24 seats are up for contest in the February 27 Assembly elections.
But the ticket distribution for Garo Hills has led to a furore among party supporters in several constituencies with a blame game under way.
On Friday, BJP workers rebelled in Selsella discarding their party affiliation and shouting slogans against the leadership for allocating the party ticket to rebel NPP legislator Ferlin CA Sangma in place of other aspirants who have for long been working for the saffron party.
Similar protests have broken out in Dadenggre constituency where the workers and supporters revolted over the allocation of tickets and blamed BJP leader and South Tura party candidate Bernard Marak demanding his resignation.
“BJP leaders from the Centre gave all of us directions that local leaders and mandal committees would undertake assessment of the seats and candidates. Then we were asked to undertake a membership drive followed by a door-to-door campaign, but when the tickets were distributed the candidates were shuffled to other constituencies,” informed former BJP leader Ismail Marak who has now switched over to the Trinamool.
The manner in which candidates who have been preparing their ground in their respective bastions were asked or given tickets for new constituencies have baffled some within the party.
Former government officer Bakul Hajong, who fought against Mukul Sangma in Ampati in the 2018 elections, had sought a ticket in Mahendraganj to take on the ex-chief minister’s wife, Dikkanchi D Shira, since there is a strong Hajong population and Nidhuram Hajong had previously been elected from there. Instead, he was allotted the ticket to contest from Rajabala, a Muslim majority seat.
Another seasoned politician and former legislator from Dadenggre, Edmund K Sangma, had been preparing to contest from Raksamgre where he came second in the previous election. Since the BJP has given the ticket to rebel NPP MLA Benedic R Marak, Edmund was reportedly asked to contest from North Tura.
“He began preparing his field but when the tickets were announced he was dropped and Adamkid A Sangma was selected. Edmund was instead given Phulbari constituency in the plain belt,” said a supporter of Edmund K Sangma who was also previously the chief executive member of the GHADC.
To sum it up is Ismail Marak who says that BJP leaders Rituraj Sharma, Rupam Goswami and Deputy Speaker of Assam Numal Momin demanded that he contest from Dadenggre constituency, where he was defeated in the last election.
“These three leaders called me day and night demanding I go to Dadenggre. When I refused, Rituraj angrily told me that he would provide Rs 1 crore if I contested from Dadenggre, but I declined since I had already prepared my field for North Tura,” alleged Ismail Marak.