The Mindikgre unit of the Garo Students Union (GSU) has written to political parties that will contest April’s Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) election to withdraw all non-tribal candidates.
In a letter dated today, which was sent to the Congress, United Democratic Party, National People’s Party (NPP) and Nationalist Congress Party, the pressure group stated that the NGOs and people of the region do not want non-tribals to take part in the polls to the district council.
Unlike the GHADC’s counterparts in the Khasi and Jaiñtia Hills (KHADC and JHADC), non-tribals are allowed to vote and vie for seats in the Garo Hills council.
Two of the parties, the NPP and the Congress, have already named non-tribal candidates as contestants in the plains belt areas that are dominated by non-tribal populations.
Coming down hard on the parties, the GSU questioned why the rules were not the same for all the district councils in the state.
The pressure group stated that the parties could have picked tribals to contest all the seats but, for the sake of winability, went for non-tribals in some. “You should have applied your mind for the sake of your own people,” the GSU said.
The GSU and other groups have called for a boycott of the April election.
