SHILLONG:
Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Vincent H Pala has warned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that bringing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to campaign for the party for the upcoming Assembly elections would boomerang on them.
Pala said the people of the state have lost their trust in the BJP after what has been done to Christians in states ruled by the party like Assam, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Pointing out that 78 per cent of the state’s population are Christians, he said bringing Modi and Shah would be a mistake and the BJP should think twice before doing it.
He said when the PM and Union Home minister came to Shillong, they only inaugurated schemes and different government projects rather than talk politics.
Pala said the Modi and Shah as the BJP’s star campaigners will not have any impact in the state. He further alleged that the BJP will not dare to take Modi to areas where they do not have the crowds otherwise it will backfire on them.
The state Congress chief said that in the 2018 assembly polls, the prime minister did not come to Khasi-Jaintia Hills but he visited only Garo Hills “because they can bring crowds from Assam”.
“They will go to a constituency neighbouring Assam so that they can bring crowds from there. There was a huge crowd in Garo Hills but those did not translate into votes,” he added.
He also said during the last election, the Union Home minister came to Malki ground but there was no public attending the meeting at all.
Meanwhile, the Congress is proposing to have 40 star campaigners who will be campaigning for the upcoming elections. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor are among the names proposed by the party.
“We are finalising the names of star campaigners…definitely we will have 40 star campaigners – 20 from Meghalaya and 20 from outside of Meghalaya,” he said while informing that the party will be releasing its election manifesto by February 9 or 10.