Battle for Tura LS seat: Is NPP relying on BJP for an easy win?

Meghalaya Education Minister and state NPP general secretary Rakkam A Sangma today said that if the NPP has fully secured the BJP votes, than it will be an easy win for incumbent MP and party candidate Agatha Sangma.

Rakkam A Sangma said, “Suppose in Tura, in last MLA election BJP got 90000 votes. If truly they support, 90000 votes must have gone to the NPP, it will be a blessing. But I don’t know whether it has happened or not. The BJP did not put candidates for reasons best known to them. NPP did not seek their support. But BJP did not put up their candidates, why? During the last MLA elections, the PM came to Tura, Home Minister Amit Shah came to Tura, they campaigned for the candidates. But nothing happened, there was no impact. They said they have instructed their cadres, supporters to vote for the NPP, but I don’t know whether they have voted or not. If BJP voters voted for NPP, we may be winning easily, but I don’t know whether it has converted in actions or not.”

Terming the Lok Sabha elections this time in the state as interesting, Sangma however said that the margin even if the NPP wins will not be much.

“This time it is a very interesting election we have experienced, unexpected. We had a very tough fight, an unexpected tough fight in Garo Hills as well as in Shillong. However, with God’s grace we are expecting that with a very small margin NPP looks like, we will send back Agatha Sangma to Delhi,” Sangma added.

Asked as to why the margin will be small, Rakkam A Sangma attributed this to shift in votes from the TMC to Congress and the opposition’s alleged move to spread propaganda among the people over the ties between the NPP and the BJP.

During his conversation with newspersons, Rakkam A Sangma said, “All the TMC supporters have supported Congress candidate for the reason best known to them. I do not know why TMC has given up the fight. So the TMC supporters went back to vote for the Congress. This is one of the reason. However, there are multiple issues especially the wrong, misleading propaganda using religious sentiments is something which is a matter of concern. In fact, some church people have been carried away by the propaganda. Lot of misleading propaganda has been carried out against certain parties, against certain individuals.”