The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday announced that it will fight alone from Meghalaya in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and field candidates from the two Parliamentary seats of Tura and Shillong, PTI reported. The saffron party supports the National People’s Party-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government in the state.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by BJP General Secretary in-charge of North East Ajay Jamwal and attended by state party’s leaders and workers. “We have decided in principle to contest the Lok Sabha elections from both the parliamentary seats in Meghalaya,” BJP state leader AL Hek said afterward. A delegation from the state will meet BJP President Amit Shah to inform him about the decision, he added.
Hek said an election committee will be set up soon for inviting applications from aspiring candidates for the two seats. “We have not zeroed in on anybody, but we have four to five people in our mind who have also shown interest to contest the elections as BJP candidates,” Hek told The Shillong Times.
The announcement was made after Meghalaya Democratic Alliance partners failed to pick a consensus candidate for both constituencies, said Hek. The United Democratic Party, the leading regional party supporting the alliance government in the state, had announced its general secretary Jemino Mawthoh as the candidate.
Meghalaya BJP President Shibun Lyngdoh said the party had considered supporting and had waited for the alliance to propose the consensus candidates, but nothing happened till Tuesday.
“We are confident of winning both the seats,” said Hek. “The BJP had only two MPs in 1984, but now it is the biggest party in the country.”
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