Meghalaya polls 2023: NPP heading for a single majority says Meghalaya CM, Conrad Sangma

With assembly elections just around the corner, the NPP is quite confident of sailing through in Meghalaya with a clear majority, NPP national president and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma

With assembly elections just around the corner, the NPP is quite confident of sailing through in Meghalaya with a clear majority, NPP national president and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said speaking exclusively to Northeast Live.

When asked about what he feels about the poll pulse since Meghalaya has a history of a fractured mandate, Conrad Sangma said the NPP strongly believes that the elections can never be easy and takes every opponent seriously.

Sangma said, “Well, very outset of course I have always been a person who has believed that the elections can never be easy and one has to work very hard and of course, we have to take each and every opponent very seriously. So we always approach every election with that mindset.”
However, the Meghalaya Chief Minister said that his government has received a good response from the grassroots as he attributed this to the way the government had worked in the last 5 years and especially in the last 2 years.

Conrad Sangma said, “We are getting a very positive response from the grassroots level and people are very happy with the kind of work that has happened at the grassroots. And there is a very positive sense that is going on. prevailing throughout out the state.”

“And this is evident from the kind of people joining us from different political parties and the public and the leaders and the workers joining from different political parties in every constituency and every region of the state. So I do really expect and of course, hope that we will do very well this time,” Sangma added.
Speaking on the fact that the state has a history of a fractured mandate, Conrad Sangma exuded confidence and said that history may repeat again when the All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) got a single majority by winning 32 seats out of the total 60 seats.

Sangma said, “Yes Meghalaya always had a fractured mandate but we are sensing that history may repeat again which happened in 1972 when APHSLC was the only party that got a majority. We are sensing that NPP is heading towards a single majority.”

Meanwhile, Conrad Sangma said that there is pro-incumbency in favor of his government unlike when governments face anti-incumbency.

Sangma said,”It is always anti-incumbency against governments in general. But we are seeing this time that there is pro-incumbency. In fact, we are seeing that people are satisfied to a large extent. A lot of things have happened that people did not expect would happen. Therefore people are happy and there is a positive sense going on everywhere. That’s the reason as I said we are seeing leaders of different political parties joining us.”

Responding to a query as to what went wrong between the NPP and the BJP, Conrad Sangma straightaway denied this. He said, “Nothing went wrong. We have worked as a coalition partner and we are two different parties with our own ideologies, own visions, and own areas of concern and importance. And therefore having individual identity we have always fought elections on our own and therefore NPP has never had a pre-poll alliance in any election in any state in the country.”

However, the NPP national president and the Meghalaya Chief Minister said that there had been some issues and concerns in the last 5 years. He added It’s not just in the coalition, in relationships also we have complications. But the important thing is to find a solution to it, resolve those tensions and concerns and move forward keeping in mind the people’s interests. That’s what happened in the last 5 years.”

Conrad Sangma further said, “Now coming to the elections, it is obvious that when You are contesting elections on your own then You will do the things at Your own level and other political parties will do their own programs and policies and campaign because that’s natural because we are fighting against each other.

So You are seeing that the BJP and other alliance partners are also having their own campaign strategy and that’s how things are.”

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