Cabinet minister and BJP legislator Sanbor Shullai would have brought plenty of development initiatives to Meghalaya if the public had voted him as Shillong MP in the 2019 general election.
Shullai finished third in the Lok Sabha race with under 1 lakh votes, behind Jemino Mawthoh of the United Democratic Party and sitting MP Vincent Pala of the Congress.
The South Shillong MLA also claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had promised him a Union cabinet berth if he won the Shillong seat.
Shullai was speaking today at a campaign rally for the National People’s Party candidate Pyniaid Sing Syiem ahead of the by-poll for the Mawryngkneng Assembly seat on October 30.
Shullai also said that, had he become MP, development would have flowed into Meghalaya. He pointed out that in other North East states where there are BJP MPs, like in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Assam, educational institutes are being opened and the people there do not need to come to Shillong for their studies anymore.
He also sought to lessen fears about voting for the Hindu nationalist BJP, saying that Nagaland has 14 legislators from the party even though a majority of the state’s citizens are Christian, like in Meghalaya.
Meanwhile, Shullai castigated the Congress, saying that the people had rejected it after living through the “bitter” experience of its rule for decades.
“As of today the rule of the Congress party is over. The citizens couldn’t take the lip service of the Congress anymore,” Shullai said.
Pala is just sitting in opposition and doing nothing in Parliament, he added, and has now returned to Meghalaya to “cause division” within the Congress.
