Shillong, Feb 11: AICC leader Jairam Ramesh said despite the exit of MLAs and other party functionaries, the party managed to field 47 out of 60 candidates below the age of 45 and this has never happened before in any state except Meghalaya and this is bringing the youth to the fore.
“10 out of 60 are women. “No other political party in Meghalaya has given women such a heavy representation”, Ramesh said after releasing the party’s manifesto on Saturday.
He said the Meghalaya polls will be a watershed election for the Congress.
Referring to former leaders who left the party as Judas he said, “One advantage of the Judas leaving our party is that they create vacancies and we have youngsters for the first time and we have more women candidates”, he said.
“So it is a watershed election for the Congress party. Of course we recognise that there are many people who betrayed the Congress party in the last couple of years, good riddance, their commitment to the values of the Congress and its ideology obviously is not very strong, obviously ED, CBI, Income Tax has come knocking on their doors,” he said.
He said the Congress is committed to protect Meghalaya’s identity.
“Meghalaya is part of the Indian Union, is part of the Indian mainstream. Youth of Meghalaya are earning a name for themselves all over the country but there is a unique and distinctive identity to the society of Meghalaya that only the Congress can protect”, he said.,
“On the one side you have sets of parties who will dictate what the identity of Meghalaya is from Nagpur or from Delhi or you have another political party which will dictate what is good for Meghalaya from Kolkata, it is only the Congress party which will dictate from Shillong, from Meghalaya not only dictate but it will determine in the state”, he said.
Stating that the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution is under threat , he said, “The ethnic identity of Meghalaya, the religious identity, the social identity and the linguistic identity are all under threat because in the name of unity the BJP and its allies propagate uniformity.”
“It is only the Congress party that believes not just unity in diversity but unity through diversity. If you strengthen diversity, you strengthen unity. If you weaken diversity, you weaken unity. The BJP wants uniformity, the Congress wants unity through diversity,” he said.
“We are confident that the people of Meghalaya will give a mandate to the Congress party. It is tried and trusted party it is an experienced party, it is a party that respects the sentiments of the people of Meghalaya and it is a party for which decision will not be taken in Kolkata or New Delhi or Nagpur but decisions will be taken in Shillong by leaders of Meghalaya but of course in consultations with other people because the Congress is also a national party.”
He said many people have written obituaries of the Congress. “It has become their favourite pastime, writing obituaries of the Congress but the Congress has a remarkable capacity for surprising their obituaries,” he said.
Pala downplayed the double engine concept of government.
“The BJP is now threatening the people of Meghalaya if you don’t vote for BJP then you will not get money, if you don’t vote for BJP then you cannot form the government. This is a democracy. The BJP cannot run whether double, single or 10 engines, it is the people of Meghalaya who will run Meghalaya and it will be the leaders of Meghalaya who will run Meghalaya,” he said and predicted that the BJP may not even get 2 seats.
