Now is not the right time for party members to bring up the cash-for-ticket scandal that dogged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) some years ago, state party president Ernest Mawrie said today.
The scandal saw senior leaders reportedly take money in order for party tickets. The matter was brought to the fore by BJP aspirant Michael Kharsyntiew recently and was apparently one of the reasons why he was passed over in favour of Mariahom Kharkrang as the party’s candidate for the North Shillong seat in the upcoming February 27 elections.
The matter of the scandal was dealt internally by the party and there was no need to re-raise the issue in the public sphere, Mawrie said today after filing his nomination papers for the West Shillong constituency.
He also said that allotment of BJP tickets is not under his control but is decided by the party high command.
Kharsyntiew had been a BJP member for a considerable length of time but, instead, the party went with Kharkrang, who only recently joined the fold.
“The allotment of the party ticket is not my decision as the state president of the party. We have a state election committee that forwards the names to the central election committee where the Prime Minister is the chairman and the tickets are decided in front of all the members of the central election committee,” he said.
