SHILLONG:
The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) will decide on whether to throw its hat in the electoral ring depending on the winnability of aspiring candidates as it doesn’t want to unnecessarily trouble voters.
Thomas Passah, vice-president of the party, on January 3, said the party has received as many as nine applications seeking to contest from KHNAM.
“However, we have decided to meet before the third week of January to decide on whether to field candidates for the upcoming elections in the state,” he said.
Passah said that the party will do a recce on all the ticket aspirants before taking a final call.
“This is because we don’t want to field candidates just for the sake of it. If we see that the candidates really have the capability to win, maybe we will go ahead (in allotting party tickets) but if they don’t have a chance to win, we don’t want to unnecessarily trouble the voters,” he stated.
According to him, the party will also do a proper screening as sometimes candidates are not contesting to actually win as they have their own agenda and this will only tarnish the image of the party.
Referring to recent imbroglio with North Shillong legislator Adelbert Nongrum over the issue of party leadership, Passah said that whatever had happened has to a great extent affected the party.
When asked, the KHNAM leader said that the question of Nongrum tendering his resignation does not arise anymore since he had already submitted it on July 10, 2018.
“We still have that resignation and we cannot have two resignation letters from the same person. We have already accepted his resignation letter on September 9, 2018. Therefore, it is pointless for him to again submit his resignation letter,” he said.
Passah further stated that the entire stalemate has taken a natural course because Nongrum has left the party.
“Now, there is no more fight (over leadership issue). Pyndapbor Saiborn will continue to be the president of the party till the next general council meeting,” he said while informing that the meeting is likely to take place in May.
He said the leadership issue had reached the Election Commission of India and the court but all judgments have asked the party to resolve the matter amicably.
Meanwhile, the KHNAM has decided to go all out for the upcoming 2024 elections to the two autonomous district councils – KHADC and JHADC.
“…we have however decided that we will go with full force for the MDC election. We will consider the MDC election as one of the main agendas of the party especially after the imbroglio,” Passah said.
According to him, the party wants to ensure that the autonomy of the district councils is maintained at any cost.
“As of now the president of the UDP is there in the state and CEM is also being held by the UDP – this defeats the autonomous power of the district council. So we feel why not KHNAM go all out for MDC so that it will uphold the autonomy of the district council and will have nothing to bargain with the state government on that time,” he said while adding “We have already strategize our plans we will go all out for MDC elections. All 30 candidates will be there.”
Asked, Passah said that the president of the party will surely contest the upcoming MDC elections but not MLA elections. He also announced his interest to contest the MDC election from Jaiaw constituency in 2024.