Shillong, Oct 3: Cabinet minister and Resubelpara MLA Timothy D Shira today denied that he had brought any pressure to bear on Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma to give him a ministerial post.
Shira was one of the beneficiaries of the recent cabinet reshuffle, with the incumbent Deputy Speaker of the Assembly resigning from that post to take up a place in cabinet.
Speaking to reporters, Shira clarified that he never asked to be included in the cabinet, but acknowledged that there had been requests from the people of North Garo Hills for representation.
“I don’t have any say in it. It is the Chief Minister’s prerogative. I never said that Paul Lyngdoh or Ampareen Lyngdoh (who were removed from cabinet in the reshuffle) are inefficient or efficient — it is for the Chief Minister to decide and do the reshuffling. I never made any demands that I should be included in the cabinet. But there were demands from the people of North Garo Hills that it should be represented in the cabinet,” Shira said.
On whether the Chief Minister was pressured into reshuffling, Shira responded: “He wasn’t pressured, he was requested from the beginning. The people of North Garo Hills want one representative because there are four constituencies in the district and all the candidates from the NPP (National People’s Party) were elected. So naturally, people wanted a voice in the cabinet.”
