Shillong,June 28: NPP national president Conrad Sangma has ruled out any division within the party and the family over allotment of ticket to contest the bypoll in Gambegre.
The bypoll was necessitated after Saleng Sangma, who was representing the Gambegre Assembly seat, won Tura Lok Sabha seat.
“There is no division in the party or division in the family”, Conrad told reporters on Friday.
Media reports had said chief minister’s elder brother James Sangma, who wanted to contest the bypoll, had expressed his unhappiness as there is a move to give ticket to CM’s wife Mehtab Chandee Sangma.
Denying this, Conrad said there are around 7-8 names but he had met and spoken to all of them.
“In fact about couple of days back we have met and in the meeting, everybody and all party leaders, who want to contest and the people whose names are doing the rounds even though they may not want to contest or they may want to contest that is a different issue but their names are doing the rounds. So whichever names were doing the rounds, we have consulted everybody, we have talked with everybody and everybody has confirmed that they are with the party and whatever decision the party takes that will be the final decision and they will abide by that decision,” he said.
“So the party has taken a unanimous decision on this and now the process of giving the ground report from the block level and district level and the regional level is underway and once that process is completed the state committee will recommend accordingly,” he said.
The NPP state president said, “Let me again clarify that there is no question of any kind of division. We are very much clear that we will work together as a family and more importantly as a political party and all the names that are doing the rounds will work together to fight this particular election.”
“There are around 7-8 names but that doesn’t mean all of them are campaigning on the ground but people are taking their names and so all those people we have talked to and all have given me the assurance that whatever party decides they will abide by it,” he added.
