GUWAHATI: Changing his election tactics, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who is the national president of National People’s Party (NPP), publicly announced the name of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA as the NPP candidate in the Tikrikilla seat.
“Great to be at Paham in Tikrikilla, West Garo Hills after a month to address supporters of the NPP where we also welcomed new members to the party. Apprised them about the work of the NPP-led MDA Government & urged their support to our candidate Sh. Jimmy D Sangma,” the CM tweeted.
Jimmy is the TMC legislator in the Tikrikilla seat. Speculations are rife that he will quit the party and embrace the NPP.
Normally, poaching is done clandestinely and the defectors announce their crossing over. In this case, CM Sangma went public with the TMC MLA’s candidature and said he (Jimmy) is contesting as an NPP candidate.
Jimmy was not available for comment. The TMC said it would discuss the issue.
“Our leaders are out of station. They will soon meet and discuss the matter. We will decide accordingly,” party MLA George B Lyngdoh told this newspaper.
Last week, he alleged the rival political parties were making attempts to poach the TMC legislators. “Other parties are trying to weaken us. This has been going on for some time,” Lyngdoh had said.
In November last year, 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs, led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, had jumped ship to wear TMC colours. Their desertion had relegated the grand old party to a smaller party and made the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC the state’s principal opposition dramatically overnight. It had no base in the state prior to that.
Recently, one of the MLAs, Himalaya Shangpliang, had ditched the party to join the BJP. As the polls draw near, keeping its MLAs intact will be the biggest challenge for the TMC.
The party has virtually captured the Congress’ space in the Garo Hills region but it will have to do a lot to consolidate its position in the two other regions of Khasi and Jaintia Hills, observers said.