The Voice of the People Party (VPP) has no fear of contesting elections against candidates with money power.
“We will not be cowed by money power to contest the elections but will speak against it,” Former Nongkrem MLA and chief of the VPP, Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, told Highland Post today. “This is the way we will disempower this influence of money power.”
Campaigning against it will eventually lead to money’s influence on the electoral process to disappear and that will give Meghalaya more capable politicians who can make the state a better place, he opined.
“If I don’t dare to stand against money power in Nongkrem then I’m just paving the way for this influence to crush us, which I cannot let happen,” Basaiawmoit, who lost the 2018 polls by fewer than 100 votes, said.
When asked how many seats the VPP will field in 2023, Basaiawmoit maintained that the VPP is not interested in the quantity of candidates but the quality, on which there can be no compromise, but it has narrowed down on 10 candidates as of now, including in Garo Hills.
Besides proper roads, electricity and addressing the acute water scarcity in Nongkrem, Basaiawmoit said he yearns to make Nongkrem a model constituency with all-round developments in terms of education, healthcare and other facilities.
