Shillong, Nov 8: The ruling National People’s Party (NPP) has to poach politicians from other parties as it is incapable of grooming new talent, Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Manuel Badwar has told Highland Post.
“Congress has always been a party that builds leaders and grooms them,” Badwar said, adding that the state unit is rebuilding itself from the ground up.
He said the party has rebuilt its block and district units at every level, with workers now present in 60 to 70 polling stations in each constituency. A large number of youth under 35, including students, are joining in large numbers, Badwar asserted.
According to him, Meghalaya is facing a political crisis because most MLAs are opportunists and the NPP, despite eight years in power, has failed to produce a second generation of leaders.
“They will have to poach existing leaders because they are not able to churn out new ones,” Badwar said.
The Congress has been the victim of political musical chairs, with its strength in the Meghalaya Assembly being reduced to zero after four sitting MLAs quit to join the NPP since 2023. Even in the previous Assembly, it witnessed mass defections that saw it wiped out in the house.
Recently, however, the party witnessed the same thing happen to the United Democratic Party (UDP), which was reduced from a strength of 12 MLAs to just one after defections to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the NPP. There was a certain amount of irony in this as the sole remaining UDP legislator is Metbah Lyngdoh, who, as Speaker up to 2023, accepted the legality of the defections of the previous bunch of Congress MLAs.
On the next state elections, Badwar ruled out any alliance with the UDP, which last week decided to sit in the opposition, saying the two parties have different ideologies and the UDP lacks depth.
“We are definitely not in talks, and we don’t intend to have any talks with them,” he said.
On the upcoming Lok Sabha by-election for the Shillong seat, Badwar said the Congress is very much in the race despite talk of an NPP versus Voice of the People Party (VPP) fight.
Congress, which is fielding former MP Vincent Pala, is holding seven to eight small meetings daily across the constituency, reaching 300 to 400 people a day in villages. Pala lost the seat in 2024 to the VPP’s Ricky AJ Syngkon in a landslide. The latter’s death in February this year necessitated the by-election.
“Congress will definitely be in the picture. Our vote share will certainly improve,” Badwar said, adding the party expects another four to six weeks to campaign.
