The Congress Party today named its first list of 40 candidates for the upcoming Meghalaya elections.
Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president and Shillong MP Vincent Pala’s name has been confirmed as the candidate for Sutnga Saipung.
Pala added that observers will visit the remaining 20 constituencies to understand the ground realities and decide on candidates accordingly.
The list of 40 names has been cleared by the Meghalaya Pradesh Election Committee but it is the All India Congress Committee that will give the final go-ahead.
Twenty-six candidates are from Khasi-Jaintia Hills and 14 from Garo Hills. Out of the 40, eight are female, i.e. 20 percent.
Pala said that the Congress wants to ring in the changes by bringing in new faces. Out of 40, only 10 (or 25 percent) are former MLAs; the Congress currently has zero legislators in the Assembly after losing all through defections.
Some of the issues that the party will raise in its campaigning include electricity crisis, unemployment, admission of youths in central universities and agricultural problems.
“We urge the people of the state to give Congress a chance and give us an absolute majority,” Pala said.
The prominent names in the list include Pala, former police officer turned militant and now under-trial Champion R Sangma, former MLAs Celestine Lyngdoh, JA Lyngdoh, Deborah Marak, Billykid A Sangma, Edmund S Sangma, Sayeedullah Nongrum, Rophul S Marak, PN Syiem and Brigady Napak Marak.
