SHILLONG, MAR 23: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today announced its decision to field three-time South Shillong MLA Sanbor Shullai as its official candidate for the Shillong parliamentary constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to be held on April 11.
However, the BJP, which is backing the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance, has decided to extend full support to former Tura Member of Parliament and NPP nominee Agatha K Sangma by not putting up any candidate for the Tura parliamentary seat.
Shullai was one among the 36 candidates approved by the BJP’s central election committee (CEC) during a meeting chaired by its national president Amit Shah in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday.
He is pitted against two-time Congress Shillong MP Vincent H Pala and UDP leader Jemino Mawthoh, who is contesting as the MDA common candidate.
“…we have sent the names of all the leaders and the CEC has chosen Sanbor Shullai to be the official candidate of the party (from Shillong constituency) for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls,” BJP state president Shibun Lyngdoh told reporters here.
Lyngdoh said under the leadership of Shullai as a candidate, the party in the state would go to the people of Khasi and Jaintia Hills region requesting their support.
Expressing confidence that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government will come back to power, he said, “I would like to request all people of Khasi and Jaintia Hills to vote for BJP because BJP’s only agenda is development, development and development.”
The BJP state chief said the party want the people of Meghalaya to fully benefit from the development even as he claimed that the BJP during the past five years have been able to bring many developments in the different states of the country.
“We (therefore) appeal to the people of Shillong constituency to vote for Sanbor Shullai so that he can take up the various grievances faced by the people of Meghalaya and plead in the parliament and ensure development becomes a reality in Meghalaya,” he added.
Lyngdoh had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He said despite being a person without any popularity, he could manage to get nearly a lakh votes.
“(This time) with the candidature of Sanbor Shullai, a tall leader of Shillong city, I hope that the people will give him a good chance and we will ensure that we gather few votes even from rural areas also this time,” Lyngdoh said.
Asked on the decision of the party not to field candidate for the Tura seat, the BJP leader said, “The decision not to put up candidate for the Tura seat that is the decision of the central leadership and that is not for me to comment. We have already sent four names and they feel that we should not contest (so) that is the decision.”
Lyngdoh further added there is no doubt that the BJP will support the NPP candidate Agatha K Sangma who is contesting against opposition Congress nominee and former chief minister Mukul Sangma in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
According to him, the NPP is an ally of the BJP at the Centre too.
On the other hand, BJP CLP leader and health minister AL Hek said that the state party will leave no stone unturned to ensure victory of Shullai.
“We have decided to go to different booth level to campaign for Sanbor Shullai. Though we have only few days left for campaigning but the time we have will be fully utilized for ensuring victory of the party in the upcoming elections,” Hek said.
“With Sanbor Shullai as the candidate, we are going to strengthen the Centre-state relations and along with the MDA we are going to bring change in Megahlaya and ensure development,” he added.
Lauding the tremendous development brought by the BJP-led NDA government in the whole country, Hek also claimed that lots of developmental schemes have been pouring into Meghalaya through the central government under leadership of Modi.
To cite a few, he said over Rs 20 crore was sanctioned for the setting up of the state diagnostic centre in Shillong besides schemes sanctioned by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and others.
By Our Reporter
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