National People’s Party (NPP) national vice president and former deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong on Saturday termed the arson and attack on the office and house of the two HSPDP MLAs as an attempt to snatch away their constitutional rights.
This came a day after miscreants committed arson at the office of HSPDP MLA from Mawshynrut Methodius Dkhar at Laitumkhrah and attacked the house of Mawthadraishan MLA Shakliar Warjri’s family.
The incident took place after the two MLAs had extended support to the NPP for forming the new government.
“It seems these people are trying to snatch away the constitutional rights of the elected representatives. The message therefore is very clear, we will not allow such criminal activities to happen in the entire state of Meghalaya just because one party or one individual MLA wanted to join any political party for forming the government. This is against the constitution and against the rights of the people of those concerned constituencies,” Tynsong told reporters.
Appealing to all concerned to stop such illegal activities, the NPP leader said, “The government will make all out efforts to ensure the culprits are booked at the earliest possible.”
Tynsong also slammed the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) and the Hynniewtrep Integrated Territorial Organization (HITO) for behaving like “political wings” of some political parties.
“They are like political wings of some political parties as openly whenever they go to any places within the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, they talk openly that (people) should vote for this party or that party,” he said.
Stating that NGOs are not supposed to be involved in the political process, Tynsong said, “Indirectly yes you have every right to vote to do whatever you want but you need not come out openly saying don’t vote for this party or that party because I personally feel that this is totally wrong.”
The former deputy chief minister further informed that clear instructions have been given to the police to ensure law and order is maintained at any cost during the swearing-in ceremony to be held on March 7.
He also appealed to all political parties to work together and said, “People have already elected you and it doesn’t matter if you are in the opposition or in the government but we will work together for the betterment of our state.”
On the demand for a chief minister from the Khasi Hills region, Tynsong said that people should respect that the NPP is the single largest party and respect the decision taken by the elected representatives of the party that Conrad K Sangma will be chief minister for the next five years.
“My clarification is if you want (a Khasi chief minister) then why don’t you come only one party. Let one party set up the candidate, this side you have 36, you may win 32 – 33 then you claim and form the government. That is very clear. Now you can’t do this. How can you bring 2 MLAs from one party, five MLAs from another party? How can you forcefully ask them to form the government just because we want a chief minister from the Khasi region? That is totally wrong,” he said.
“Therefore, my appeal to all citizens of the state don’t listen to these kinds of misleading activities done by a few groups of people to disturb even the peace and tranquility that we have in Shillong city as well as in the state as a whole,” he added.
When asked, Tynsong claimed that the NPP has the majority to form the new government.
“Right now we have not less than 32 and that we will prove it on March 7,” he said while informing that the NPP is also reaching out to other political parties for their support.
“It is not a question of only UDP or HSPDP or other parties but I am telling you we are going to form a coalition government again and we will provide a stable government,” he said.
According to him, most likely Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be attending the swearing in ceremony at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday.