Now that the Assembly election everywhere else is done and the post-poll alliances formulated, the Congress Party is hopeful that the electors of Sohiong reject all those parties who have once again come together to form the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance 2 government.
The election to the Sohiong seat was delayed due to the death of United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate HDR Lyngdoh a few days before the polls. Lyngdoh was a former cabinet minister under the last Congress government but quit to join the UDP before the election.
Speaking today, Mylliam MLA and Congress legislative party leader Ronnie V Lyngdoh said that the party would only understand its position in the constituency once campaigning begins.
The UDP has announced Synsharlang Lyngdoh Thabah as its candidate for the Sohiong seat. Thabah is the nephew of the late HDR Lyngdoh.
The other candidates who have already filed their nominations are sitting MLA Samlin Malngiang (National People’s Party), S Osborne Kharjana (Congress), Sandondor Ryntathiang (Hill State People’s Democratic Party), Seraph Eric Kharbuki (Bharatiya Janata Party) and Stodingstar Thabah (Trinamool Congress).
Of these, the UDP, NPP, HSPDP and BJP are in the governing alliance. The TMC is, like the Congress, in opposition but they are at loggerheads.
Ronnie said that the Sohiong race will entirely lie on the wisdom of the people since it is now clear that, except for the Congress, all the other parties are together under the MDA.
“These parties will say that they are not with the NPP just one-two months before election but just one day after the election result was declared they have worked together. People of Sohiong have to be wise because now they (the coalition parties in the MDA) cannot deny that they have a very close relationship with the NPP and the BJP,” he said.
Looking ahead to next year’s KHADC election, Ronnie said that Congress is well-prepared for whatever type of election.
Inevitably, he was then asked why the party had only won five out of the 59 seats in the recent Assembly polls. In reply, he said that, besides other factors, the defection of MLAs to other parties was a major blow.
“This left us very little time to organise and identify winnable candidates. Despite this, some of our candidates lost with small margins, including in Laitumkhrah (East Shillong) which could have been different if we had more time,” he said.
One of those who lost was state Congress chief and Shillong MP Vincent Pala, who came second in Sutnga-Saipung. Asked whether Pala should take responsibility and resign, Ronnie said that the blame cannot fall on just one person as the whole organisation is responsible.
“If you look carefully, in the Khasi-Jaintia region the NPP was also rejected and got only eight seats out of 36. If you asked us this question you can ask the NPP too because they were also rejected by the Khasi-Jaintia people,” he stated.
