SHILLONG:
National People’s Party (NPP) national president and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday informed he would soon convene a national executive meeting to start the procedure of inviting applications from those interested to contest the Lok Sabha polls.
“I will be having a national executive meeting at the national level to ask the states to start the procedure to invite applications from those interested to contest the elections and then we will decide,” Sangma told reporters.
Asked if the party has approached former Umroi MLA George B Lyngdoh for contesting from Shillong seat, the NPP leader said, “I don’t want to say anything about who is approaching whom, who is on the list or no list as these things are dynamic in nature and it will keep happening.”
Stating that there are lots of people who are keen to contest on an NPP ticket, Sangma said, “It shows that there is a lot of interest in the NPP. It shows that there is a demand for it and it is a positive sign for us … That is how I see it.”
He said that the party will carry everybody along and take a decision on the Shillong parliamentary seat.
“I stick to my point that when we decide on anything, we want to carry everybody along. We want to take democratic decisions and we would like to take a consensus decision if possible. All the aspects that are there will definitely be looked into and will definitely be examined…. but at the end of the day, there can be only one candidate and we will take a decision when the time is correct,” Sangma said.
Over six aspirants are vying for the ticket. Sangma, however , said it would not be correct for the party to give a ticket to somebody who has not joined the party.
The NPP chief admitted that people are emotional when the chief minister was asked about some party leaders not being happy about Dhar’s proposal to allot a ticket to former Mawhati MLA Dasakhiat Lamare.
He said, “There is a lot of unhappiness in many other political parties also. I will not call it unhappiness; I will just call it emotions. I will say people are emotional about certain things, people are emotional about their leader, their candidate, the person they support and it is only natural, and there is nothing wrong in it and we respect it.”
Further, Sangma said such a decision requires a multi-level assessment if the party wants to give a strong fight in the upcoming elections.
“People like to use the word ‘high command’ but you have to remember that ultimately, it is how a party functions is what matters. We always believe that we get a sense of the grassroots and once they are heard, we then look and map what the people of the state would want and then we would like to come to a decision as close as possible into looking at the grassroots workers and party organisation and what the public would want and what is the political scenario in the state. Therefore, it is a decision which requires a multi-level assessment. We should do that if we want to give a strong fight so that is what we are going to do,” he added.
In regard to the Tura parliamentary seat, the NPP chief said that the sitting MP Agatha K Sangma is keen to contest again. “Therefore, the party will decide based on applications,” he said.
