‘If I apply lipstick, I do it from my heart’: Meghalaya BJP leader Sanbor Shullai’s interesting analogy on supporting NPP

BJP legislator from South Shillong Sanbor Shullai has said that at least 30 per cent of his supporters did not their vote in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections for the Shillong Parliamentary seat in Meghalaya because they were angry not seeing Shullai’s name and symbol during the elections.

“Many did not vote out of anger. They did not see my name, my symbol. But in my constituency we are winning. The NPP winning means the BJP and Sanbor Shullai is winning. The voter turnout has been 59% in my constituency which is not bad compared to many other places of India,” Shullai said speaking to the media on Tuesday in Shillong.

Asked if BJP should have fielded a candidate of its own, Shullai said, “last election they fielded me, I came third. I could not win gold or silver but I at least I got an opportunity to stand on the victory stand with the bronze medal. I feel we should have fielded this time also. I had submitted a letter of support for Dr Fenela Lyngdoh to be the MP candidate. But when the party came up with the party directive, as a party loyalist we had to comply”.

Asked if he did not wholeheartedly support the party’s decision to support NPP in the Lok Sabha elections, Shullai said, “I am not like others who just put lipstick on the face. When I put lipstick on my lips I put it from my heart. I personally with all my karyakartas, wholeheartedly supported the NPP”.

The two Meghalaya Lok Sabha seats of Tura and Shillong voted on April 19, the first phase of the elections.
NPP fielded Ampareen Lyngdoh, a Meghalaya Cabinet minister and 5-time MLA from the Shillong seat. She was supported by BJP as per the agreement between NPP and BJP.