Former NCP candidate Freddy Rumnong and former general secretary of BJP Pynthorumkhrah mandal P Lyngdoh along with 50 others on Friday joined the opposition Congress.
They were welcomed by Congress working president PN Syiem, who is also candidate of the party from the Pynthorumkhrah constituency for the upcoming elections.
Addressing the joining programme, Syiem said their joining will have a great impact on the Congress to win the elections from the constituency.
He said that he has a close relation with the people of the villages which are not under his Mawkhar-Pynthorumkhrah MDC constituency.
“I have no problem to win in this coming elections. In fact, there is not much difference (between MDC and MLA elections). As of now, there are already 7 villages in Pynthorumkhrah constituency which are already with Mawkhar-Pynthorumkhrah constituency and the other two with Mawlai and Laitumkhrah constituency respectively. I have no problem to convince the other villages to support me…I don’t have any problem to address the problems faced by other villages within the Pynthorumkhrah constituency,” he said.
Syiem said that Pynthorumkhrah has a mixed population and it is more or less like his former constituency – Mawsynram, where people from other communities are residing.
Syiem said that he has already proved that despite being a former MLA from a rural constituency he had won the MDC elections from Mawkhrah-Pynthorumkhrah . He added that if he can win the MDC elections by preparing only 40 days, he will also win the coming elections which he has been preparing for the last three and a half years.
He said that every fight is difficult and no one can take it lightly while reminding that DD Lapang also lost the election when he was chief minister of the state.
“I have no problem to fight with anyone but I should be sincere and serious. I need the love and confidence of the people from all communities. Hek may have many alliances, I also have many alliances we can fight,” he said.
He also urge the people including the youth of the state not to get carried away by money power because employment is very important.
“I will not say employment in government sector or public sector but we should also depend on self-employment through different schemes to be taken up by the new government to be formed. The people and the youth should not be misguided by money power. The state of Meghalaya has lost its past glory. In fact Shillong was known as an education hub of North East India. Now, the education, healthcare, economy, employment, revenue have come down because of money power,” he said.
He also appealed to the people to vote for legislators and not businessmen. “We need a legislator, a policy maker, a law maker and not high level, not coal transporters or contractors. We cannot promote tourism or education without good lawmakers. This time we should see that the potential politicians should come up to build up the state.”