SHILLONG:
Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president, Vincent H Pala informed on December 23 that the party will announce the names of 40 candidates in the first list which will be declared after the approval of the All India Congress Committee.
The MPCC president exuded confidence that out of 40 seats, the Congress will win 30 since the under current is very strong for the party.
Pala said that in places like Mawphlang, Sohiong and Nongthymmai senior leaders of the party like Kennedy Khyriem, H D R Lyngdoh and Charles Pyngrope joined other parties and were replaced with equally strong candidates.
Khyriem will contest from the Mawphlang seat on a National People’s Party ticket, Lyngdoh will contest from Sohiong constituency from the United Democratic Party while Pyngrope will contest from Nongthymmai on a Trinamool Congress (TMC) ticket.
“If we give the people good qualified candidates free from corruption, they will turn to the Congress,” he said.
He added that the job of the Congress is to give the best candidates and the party is confident it will win cross 30 seats.
Pala also said that some of the candidates who will be fighting the 2023 polls are experienced and have been working for the party.
He also said that some of the candidates are also IITians, there are also those who have passed MBA and officers who either are retired or left their jobs to contest the polls.
“There is a lot of enthusiasm in the party wherever we go. Be it in Garo Hills or in Khasi-Jaintia Hills,” the MPCC chief said.
When asked that the Congress will be facing the election without any sitting legislators, Pala however said, “I think there should not be any problem as normally 55% of the sitting legislators will always lose in the elections…though we do not have sitting MLAs but we have ex-MLAs, we have sitting MDCs, ex-MDCs…”
He is confident that former legislators and Members of District Council (MDCs) will replace them.
The Congress chief further informed that under the chairmanship of the Celestine Lyngdoh, the party also seeks to prepare a roadmap and the vision of the party to make it easier for the people to understand that only the Congress can bring back the lost glory of Meghalaya be it in tourism, employment, law and order, farmers, institutions, education and others.
“We accept the challenges and we will overcome the challenges also,” he said.
Meanwhile, the MPCC chief informed that the party has also completed giving training to the young boys and girls for reaching out to the people of the state through social media platforms.
It may be mentioned that the Congress in 2018 polls was the single largest winning party with 21 seats but later 12 joined the TMC, five were suspended after joining the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government.
