SHILLONG, NOV 24: A traditional head along with his supporters today pulled out from the National People’s Party (NPP) after the party conveyed that it will not set up any candidate from Mawlai constituency for the upcoming 2018 state Assembly election.
Sylvester Kurbah, the headman of Mawlai Phudmawrie, had joined the NPP last year with the aim to contest the upcoming poll from the constituency, which is presently being represented by UDP sitting MLA Embhahlang Syiemlieh.
The headman, who had also taken voluntary retirement as a Superintendent of Mines & Minerals in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), had decided to contest as an independent candidate.
“We have decided to come out of the party after the decision not to put up any candidate from the constituency was conveyed to us by the state president WR Kharlukhi in an emergency meeting called today in the party’s office,” Kurbah told reporters here.
He also said, “The party leaders told us that if we want to work for the party we can continue to do so but the party is not inclined to give party ticket.”
Kurbah, who was also the president of the NPP Mawlai unit, said that the decision had come as a shock in view that they had already organized the party in the constituency for support in the upcoming election.
On the other hand, the former NPP Mawlai unit general secretary Lamphrang Kharkngor said that the decision of the party was like pouring cold water to hard work put in by the workers at a time when the party start getting support from people of the different parts of Mawlai.
“The party also fails to give us valid reason on its sudden decision not to field candidate from Mawlai. Therefore we have decided that Kurbah should resign from the party and contest as an independent candidate,” he said.
Asked, Kurbah said that he had joined the NPP thinking that the party has good leadership quality and it is the right platform to fight for bringing a change in the state but it turned out to be otherwise. “The party is just like an old wine in a new bottle,” he said.
Stating that politics in Mawlai is individual-centric, he said that party does not matter in the constituency as people will vote for the individual person.
Whether he has any plan to join the BJP, Kurbah said that he will never join the BJP as the people in Mawlai will never accept the saffron party.
With regards to other political parties, he however said he would have taken such decision had there been only one regional political party in the state. “Looking at the present situation, I chose not to because of the division among the regional parties,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kurbah claimed that his decision to join politics was after a lot of pressure from the people of the constituency and said that his main objective is to find ways and means to address the unemployment problem faced by the educated youth.
By Our Reporter
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