NPP keen to wrest Shillong LS seat from Cong
Staff Reporter
Shillong, Nov 1: Former NPP state president and lone Rajya Sabha MP Dr WR Kharlukhi on Tuesday said that the party will fight and snatch away the Shillong seat from the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, slated to be held next year.
He said that the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP), which has decided to join the fray, will face a test in 2024 in the MP elections as well as the Autonomous District Council (ADC) elections.
“We will fight and snatch (the Shillong seat from Congress),” Dr Kharlukhi told reporters.
Stating that the party is prepared for every election, he said, “We take every election seriously, we take our opponents seriously, all our opponents are equal, we rate them high and based on that we are preparing ourselves.”
Whether VPP will have any impact on the upcoming election, Dr Kharlukhi however said, “I never downgraded any political party. Once it is a political party, it has 4 MLAs, so we cannot downgrade it. So we are preparing for that also and we will see when the election comes and what will be the outcome.”
Further, the former NPP state president said that VPP is yet to be tested as a newly floated political party.
“Like what I have said, only when the results come if you remember you keep on asking me when TMC so I say they will be tested, only when they will be tested will we know. VPP got 4 MLAs and the areas where they got the MLAs and where they influenced you know, they are yet to be tested and we will see when 2024 comes in the MDC and MP elections then we will know how much their progress is,” he said.
On Shillong MP Vincent Pala’s allegation that NPP is importing candidates from other political parties, Dr Kharlukhi said, “That is the beauty of it, not only importing but exporting also is there in politics. Sometimes MLAs will move to this side, sometimes that side.
In politics, we don’t close our doors nor can we shut our doors. So importing and exporting is both ways.”
Referring to Pala’s statement that NPP is only giving lip service on the demand for inclusion of the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, the Rajya Sabha MP said that the only thing he knows is that no government has passed a resolution in the Assembly and NPP under CM’s leadership passed a resolution in the Assembly.
“I raised this issue and not only me but even Agatha and Pala also raised the issue in parliament. This is how far we could go,” he said.
Kharlukhi also said that Pala is the most popular person in parliament.
“Frankly speaking in parliament, especially in the central hall he (Pala) is the most popular and well-known person. Everybody knows him. Every MP in India knows him,” he said.