Shillong: For the upcoming February 27 Meghalaya Assembly election the Congress will not be holding big rallies but instead it is planning to connect with the voters one to one.
In an exclusive interview with ABP Live, Vincent H Pala, President of Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) said, “We will mostly concentrate on door-to-door campaigns and make personal connect with the voters. It will also save election expenditures. We want to be very realistic when we go to voters seeking their blessings.”
The Meghalaya Congress president said he himself will not be hosting big rallies in the Sutnga-Saipung constituency from where he is contesting the Assembly election.
Pala, a former Union Minister of Water Resources and the sitting member of Parliament of Congress from Meghalaya’s Shillong Lok Sabha constituency, who is also contesting the upcoming assembly elections in the state, said he is confident that Congress will do better than expected.
“We are not making any big promises to the people of Meghalaya. Our candidates are making personal connect with the voters in each constituency. And that will be the difference in this election,” Pala said.
He expressed confidence that the people of the state still trust Congress.
“We won’t go for aggressive campaigning and people by this time have very well known what the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), Trinamool and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are doing,” Pala said.
Pala recalled the setback the party suffered in 2021 when 12 out of 17 Congress MLAs left the party and joined the Trinamool Congress and how the remaining five who were suspended for their anti-party activities also deserted the party.
Boosting party workers and talking about the legislators quitting the party, Pala said, “This won’t affect any prospects of the party. They left giving us ample time to select candidates whose heart is with Congress. We could now project to the people new faces with a zeal to work for the people”.
He said that this time the party has fielded many young and fresh faces as the state needs young leaders to lead the state.
Pala also added that Congress will go to the people seeking a clear mandate.
“We are confident of winning more than 35 seats on our own to form the government,” he said.
On the political equation emerging in the state in case of a fractured mandate, Pala said that any post or pre-poll alliance will depend on the consent of the party's high command.
Earlier in December 2022, Pala had also said that this time the anti-incumbency against the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government is high. He had stated that with elections nearing and the coalition partners in the MDA accusing each other, Congress will have more mileage going into the polls.
(The author is a senior journalist covering the Northeast.)