Cabinet minister and National People’s Party (NPP) leader Rakkam A Sangma on Wednesday expressed confidence that his party will win the Shillong parliamentary seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, to be held next year.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said, “The NPP will be fighting the upcoming MP elections (from both the seats). We are expecting that the NPP will win the Shillong seat in 2024. Whoever may be the candidate, Shillong needs a great man to represent (them) in Delhi as there are many issues.”
The minister said, “I missed Sir PA Sangma today as we need somebody in parliament to talk about North East (issues), to be represented well at the national level as Shillong is the capital of the entire NE, before creation of Assam. if Shillongites can send the best man to the parliament it would really be great.”
Asked, Sangma said there is always room for improvement and that the incumbent Congress Shillong MP Vincent H Pala could have done much better in parliament for the interest of the people of the State.
“I will be happy if the incumbent MP could have done better, could have spoken more, could have given a heavier weight because after the demise of our late PA Sangma, little words are being heard in the parliament. Shillong has many individuals. I think the best man should go to parliament to represent us. It will be a proud moment for each one of us,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Sangma said that the NPP will again field Agatha K Sangma from Tura seat even as he claimed that it will be a walkover for the party.
“Tura will be a walkover (for us). NPP is just 12 years old party but this time out of 24, 18 MLAs we got from our party and also independents, who won, earlier belong to the same family so we are hoping that Garo Hills will vote again for our MP,” he added.