Shillong MP Ricky AJ Syngkon has maintained that the delimitation of constituencies in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC and JHADC) should not have any connection with elections.
Both bodies have seen their terms extended by the state government; their original five-year terms ended earlier this year but the state government extended them by two six-month periods in order for the process of redrawing of constituency boundaries to be completed.
The Voice of the People Party (VPP), of which Syngkon is a member, has suggested that the extension is because the powers are afraid of a wave of support in favour of the VPP.
The second six-month extension occurred only recently and the VPP opposed it and even the public is against it, Syngkon said.
On the recent statement made by the KHADC Chief Executive Member Pyniaid Sing Syiem of the National People’s Party (NPP) that voters regret choosing the VPP in the last state Assembly election (where the party won four seats on its debut), Syngkon reminded him that he won the Shillong Lok Sabha seat from nearly all of the Assembly seats in Khasi-Jaintia Hills.
That, he added, was “a clear message to the government that the public is fed up with and wants a change.”
