State Congress Party leader PN Syiem today expressed full confidence that the party will retain the Gambegre seat in the Assembly at next month’s by-election.
Speaking to reporters today, Syiem said that even though the defection of three Congress MLAs to the National People’s Party (NPP) might have some effect in the Khasi-Jaintia region (where the trio are from), it would not have much impact in Gambegre in Garo Hills.
Gambegre’s seat fell vacant after the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Saleng A Sangma on June 10 following his election as Lok Sabha MP from the Tura parliamentary seat.
Syiem said that Sangma won the parliamentary election with a decent margin and, being a Congress seat, he expressed confidence that the constituency would come back to the party.
There may have been high profile defections but the party’s strength at the grassroots is still strong and will help it come election time.
When asked if the speculation that there is a move to change the state Congress leadership is true, Syiem said that there has been no such discussion in the state party on the change of leadership and this will depend on the observations of the national party.
On the future district council election, he said that time will tell if the Congress will win many seats or not but he maintained that the people know that there are only two real options, the Congress and the Voice of the People Party (VPP).
