SHILLONG:
National People’s Party (NPP) national president and Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma said that the NPP is set to become the single largest party in the upcoming Manipur polls and will call the shots in the new government.
Addressing an election campaign to drum up support for the party’s candidate in Andro, Sangma, on February 20, said that this election is very different from the past elections as the people of Manipur are tired of all the other national parties.
“That is why the people of Manipur, in this election, are looking towards the NPP to be the single largest party, form the government and lead the state. And this time that will happen,” he said, adding that the response the party’s candidates are receiving from the people of different constituencies is immense. “I had been to so many constituencies in Manipur but have never seen this kind of response where the people are coming out in thousands,” he said.
Sangma said the reason why people have started accepting the NPP is because the party has got its roots in the state of Manipur and is from the Northeast.
“Today, we are the only national party in the country that was born in the Northeast, made here, and today, is fighting for the region. That is why the people of the region and Manipur have started accepting our party. That is why, our party is growing in the Northeast and Manipur,” he said.
Sangma also added that candidate of Andro constituency, L Sanjoy Singh, was telling him that today’s meeting was organised in a short notice as tomorrow is the main programme.
“But even in such a short notice, look at the number of people that have come. They love and support him (Sanjoy) and it is this love which will win him this election,” he added.
Informing about their visit to the hospital to check-up on Sanjoy’s father after he was shot at during an election campaign on Friday night, the NPP chief, said, “We told him, all the people of Andro constituency are with you. No matter how much the opposition will try to monger fear, our people will not be scared. We will fight the BJP; we will fight their candidates.”
He further stated that the NPP is a party that believes in the youth as it knows their potential. “We are a party that believes that the Northeastern youth can compete with anybody in the rest of the country. We believe that the people of the region can also excel in every field,” Sangma asserted.
Manipur is going to polls from February 28 to March 5.