SHILLONG, June 13: NPP national general secretary and deputy chief minister of Meghalaya, Sniawbhalang Dhar recently said the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP)’s landslide victory from Shillong parliamentary seat in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls cannot impact the 2028 Meghalaya State Assembly election, which is still four years away.
“You cannot link it (2024 LS polls) with the 2028 Assembly elections. Of course, there is scope for the VPP to increase its seats but you cannot also undermine the fact that the NPP, UDP and other parties will also work very hard since we have got 3-4 years time,” Dhar told reporters.
VPP’s Ricky AJ Syngkon unseated three-time Congress MP Vincent H Pala by a massive margin of over 3.7 lakh votes, one of the highest recorded in the state.
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Stating that such a victory is not new to Meghalaya, Dhar said, “Let’s go back to history. In 2019, Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (candidate Jemino Mawthoh) had contested against Vincent H Pala but Pala secured 4 lakh votes and it was also a landslide victory for him. We won only from Khliehriat constituency.”
“Therefore, the elections of MLA, MDC and MP are totally different. It doesn’t mean that they (VPP) won MP elections, they will get the same vote share in the other elections, it is definitely not like that,” he said adding, “Pala won in 2019 by a margin of over 2 lakh votes but in 2023, the Congress could win only 4 seats (from Khasi-Jaintia region). That’s why people are wiser than you think. Therefore, you should never underestimate our voters.”
Also informing that the post-mortem on the party’s poor performance is underway, the NPP leader said, “We are conducting a post mortem to identify the shortcomings and lapses. If you win or lose, you need to conduct a post mortem. Since we lost by a huge margin, post mortem is underway and we will try to correct all our shortcomings and lapses as a party and as a government as a whole.” (NNN)
