The National People’s Party (NPP) is in fine fettle in Khasi-Jaintia Hills, party president and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma maintained today.
Going by the results of seats won alone, the NPP did not fare all that well in last year’s state Assembly elections in the region. West and East Jaintia Hills was the outlier as the NPP was able to win four out of seven seats on offer here.
Out of the five on offer in Ri-Bhoi, the NPP only won two, while it picked up zero in the seven seats of Eastern West Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills and South West Khasi Hills. Even in East Khasi Hills, the most populated district, the party only won two constituencies out of 17 (though it added another two later when the People’s Democratic Front merged with the NPP).
Despite this, Sangma refused to accept that the NPP has an image problem in the eastern part of the state.
“We got almost 3.18 lakh votes in the last Assembly election, which is the highest among all political parties,” he said today. “So, it would be incorrect to say that we did not get a positive response.”
Sangma said this while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event to welcome two sitting Congress Party MDCs – Batskhem Ryntathiang (Mairang-Nongkhlaw) and Carness Sohshang (Mawkyrwat) – and one former MDC, Donovan Kharwanlang (Sohra), to the NPP.
Sangma added that the NPP lose by very narrow margins in three or four seats. These things happen in politics and the party has been growing since then.
“Compared to the previous elections (in 2018), the NPP fared much better and we are hopeful that we will do far better in the coming elections, especially in the Lok Sabha election,” he added.
Being the party in charge, the NPP comes in for a great deal of flak, especially in this age of social media.
Responding to this, Sangma said, “Social media is not always reflective of the society at large. There are many sections of society that don’t have access to social media or are not active in social media.”
