She was once, during her days in the Congress Party, a strident critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but politics makes strange bedfellows, as the saying goes and now the BJP is going all out to support Ampareen Lyngdoh’s candidacy for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat.
Now in the National People’s Party (NPP) camp, Lyngdoh’s criticisms of the BJP, which has chosen not to field candidates in Meghalaya for the upcoming general election but rather to back the NPP, have all but vanished.
The same is true the other way around – the BJP is now pulling out all the stops to ensure that its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally at the central government level wins Shillong, which would take it out of the hands of the Congress.
According to a state BJP press statement issued today, since a coordination meeting with the NPP in March, BJP workers in every district under the Shillong parliamentary seat have hit the ground hard to ensure its ally NPP’s victory.
“Over 10,000 active karyakartas have pulled out all stops to ensure the state of Meghalaya contributes its representatives in the NDA government led by Narendra Modi, a government that looks set to return for the third successive time, as predicted by every opinion poll over the last few months,” the statement read.
The state BJP unit stated that looking at the inspirational work of the various morchas, leaders and workers of the BJP in Meghalaya, it is certain of an NDA sweep in the state.
“Iss baar 400 paar, this time BJP will cross 400 Members of Parliament,” the statement read.
Rallies and public meetings were held in South Shillong by BJP MLA Sanbor Shullai; the Scheduled Tribe morcha in Nongrang and Thangmaw villages in Eastern West Khasi Hills; in Ri-Bhoi and East Jaintia Hills; Other Backwards Caste morcha in Nongpoh; and by the BJP women’s wing, which has been going door-to-door in Shillong and other areas.
