SHILLONG:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Ernest Mawrie, on February 5, clarified that the Ri Bhoi district president is Pastor P Pnar and there is no dissent among party workers in the district.
His clarification came in the view of a statement that allegedly claimed S Thabah as the district president and stated that he, along with former general secretary S Rani and six other leaders, are preparing to submit a report highlighting the failures of Mawrie as a BJP’s state president.
Claiming that the statement was released by some people with vested interest, Mawrie said, “They claimed themselves to be a dissident group but we don’t have such a group in the party. All the party workers in Ri Bhoi are intact and are working with me on how to strengthen the party ahead of the elections,” he said, adding if there is any such group, he would like it to meet him and justify why they want to dislodge him as the state president.
Asserting that there is no infighting in the state BJP. “We don’t have differences and we don’t have dissident groups as the party is intact. Right from the state office bearers down to the polling booth, we are working as a team to strengthen the party,” he said.
Mawrie, however, recalled that there were some district party members who had violated the party constitution when he took over as the president.
“The disciplinary committee of the party had already show caused them but most of them did not turn up before the committee. Accordingly, the committee suggested that I expel them from the party. Maybe due to this reason they are taking the matter to the press…However, till today we have not received any complaint against me,” he said, brushing off speculations of two MLAs -AL Hek and Sanbor Shullai – quitting the party as “hearsay”.