Shillong, Feb 27: NPP chief Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said his party is committed to work harder to improve its overall performance.
Reacting on the performance of the party in the just concluded autonomous district council (ADC) elections in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region, he remarked, “We accept the mandate of the people. We have to introspect and work hard to improve our overall performances in each constituency.”
He said that the party will meet soon to discuss the issue.
The NPP became the single largest party by winning as many as 13 seats in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) but could manage to win only four seats out of 29 constituencies in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC).
He said that the party had expected to do much better in the Khasi Hills region but it did to a large extent if compared to the last Lok Sabha elections.
“Having said that we wanted to get a much larger number in Khasi Hills but of course that numbers did not work out but as I said I have seen the overall trend that the number of votes that have come into the NPP as a party and the candidates we have put up is far more than what we have received last time in the MP elections,” Sangma said adding “Again in Jaintia Hills if you look at the trend in the last election, it was a very difficult one and we have been able to overcome those challenges and today inspite of all the challenges that were there we were able to form the EC out there. It is positive news.”
“I am hopeful that in the coming months and years, we will be able to improve the overall situation of the party and even in the Khasi Hills. I congratulate all MDCs, who were elected and of course to the party candidates, we will keep working and strengthening the party at the grassroot level,” he added.
On the narratives that NPP is a Garo people, Sangma said, “See these are narratives created and this is part of politics and as I said if that be the case we shouldn’t have won Nongpoh, Nongshken and other constituencies and we shouldn’t have won in Jaintia Hills but we did. Therefore, there is much more that meets the eye. So normally what we are trying to do is we tend to take up most of the talked about points and try to put that as the reason why things happened but if you analysed things more in detailed you will find out that there are lots of local issues, local conditions and different political factors.”
“This has been a factor which has been there and which people have been talking about for a very long time and we have been through many elections now and it is about time that people should overcome that particular point. As I said if that was the predominant factor then I guess we would not have won in Jaintia Hills and some in Khasi Hills,” he stated.
Further, the chief minister mentioned that everybody is important in politics and the NPP is not taking anybody lightly.
“You cannot ride off anybody and I maintain this even now. Even if Congress did not win any seat but cannot just ride off anybody. For us, we treat everybody as a formidable opponent and we never take things lightly”.
Emphasizing the need for the party to organize itself, Sangma said, “we have to work harder and we have to organize ourselves better. We have to go down to the grassroot level and mobilize and definitely as I said we will not stop doing that as we are very particular with the grassroot and politics is about consistency like many things in life. So It is more important for us to be focused on development and on marginalized sections of the society and work on that.”
On the upcoming GHADC polls, the NPP chief said, “We have been running the EC in GHADC for 10 years. So there will be challenges and we have to work hard. Yes, we are not taking anything lightly but the results here technically will not directly impact the elections in Garo Hills. It will be a different factor. It is a district council election so there will be district council issues, local issues and there will be more important than any kind of election results out here in Khasi Hills affecting the Garo Hills results.”
