Despite the Voice of the People’s Party (VPP) securing 17 out of 29 seats in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), National People’s Party (NPP) Chief Conrad K. Sangma maintained that VPP’s influence has diminished compared to its performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
“I have always mentioned this to everybody that we don’t take anybody lightly, it’s not just VPP,—- it’s an even Congress, even UDP others parties, all political parties. Everybody Is it is important in politics and you cannot write off anybody. I maintain that even now. So even if say a Congress party, did not get any seats you cannot just write off anybody. So that’s number one. So for us, we treat everybody as formidable opponent and we never take things likely,” he said.
Sangma asserted that VPP’s peak was during the Lok Sabha elections and that its strength has since waned. “In fact, if you look at it, I think the peaking point (of VPP) was the MP election and now if you assess the situation, in the last MPL election If you look at it all 29 seats in Khasi Hills, we did not manage to win in any of them but this time, as I said, we have managed to win in a few seats. So if you look at it, I think Its overall our vote share has gone up compared to what it was one year back and the vote share of other political parties, the VPP has gone down….if You compared to the last Lok Sabha election. So, it depends on how you want to look at things. At the end of the day we have to work harder, we have to organise our selves better we have to go down to grassroot and mobilise people.”
Accepting the election outcome, Sangma stated that while NPP had anticipated a stronger performance, the party remains focused on strengthening its base. “Of course, we accept the mandate of the people. We have always been a party that accepts whatever mandate the people of the state have given. But yes, we had expected to do much better. We had hoped that we would be doing much better, like we did in Jaintia Hills. We expected that in Khasi Hills also, we should be doing better compared to the MP election, which we have done to a large extent. If you look at the voting percentage and the number of votes that have come in, it is far more than the numbers in the MP election. Having said that, we wanted to, of course, see that we get much larger numbers in Khasi Hills. But of course, that did not work out. However, I’ve seen the overall trend, and the votes that have come to the NPP and our candidates are far more than what we received last time in the MP election.”
Sangma confirmed that NPP would conduct an internal review and strategize for future elections. “We have to introspect, we have to work harder, and we have to improve our performance in each constituency. We will be having a meeting very soon to discuss all these issues and how to improve things. But on a more positive note, we are happy that we are forming the EC in Jaintia Hills. Again, in Jaintia Hills, if you look at the trend in the last MP election, it was a very difficult one. But we’ve been able to overcome those challenges, and today, despite all the difficulties, we are forming the EC there. So this is a very positive development. I am very hopeful that in the coming months and years, we will be able to improve the overall situation of the party even in Khasi Hills. I congratulate all the MDCs who were elected, irrespective of their party. And of course, for our own party candidates, we will continue working to improve and strengthen the party at the grassroots level.”