Shillong, Nov 21: Former MLA John Leslee Sangma is keen to contest from South Tura constituency as per the wish of the people.
BJP MDC Bernard Marak is also a contender for South Tura seat.
In a statement issued on Monday, Leslee said a meeting was held at Palm Dale , Balading at his residence on November 20 to have a discussion about the elections in 2023.
“I made my decision to return to active politics after being requested very sincerely by my supporters and political parties and well wishers and I finally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 29th June 2022. As stated earlier I joined the BJP to fulfil my dream of delivering development to the people , to move positively towards generating employment opportunity to the youths and above all to protect the interest of the indigenous people and also to protect the interest of the local non-tribals residing in the State. Since the day I joined , I have been meeting people of South Tura as all my supporters are from this constituency and have been getting a tremendous positive response”, he said.
According to Leslee, some who have a vested interest have been creating confusion among the people by spreading rumours that he will be contesting from North Tura which is not true .
“I have always associated and worked with the people of South Tura and there are thousands of people who look up to me whenever they have problem and there are thousands of people who genuinely believe in me and I can never abandon them for my personal interest or for the so called career in politics . What I have for the people of South Tura is in my heart , it is do or die for me only in South Tura, I have nothing against the people of South Tura for replacing me in 2018 as I feel it was a right decision as women folk believed in Agatha Sangma but she let them down when she resigned within a few months . In the by- election people voted for Conrad Sangma but within five years , the state saw rampant corruption , shoddy developmental works , dreams and aspirations of the youth were shattered and employment opportunities were hijacked, there was accumulation of unimaginable wealth by politicians and people closely associated with them siphoned off public money, Leslee said.
He also pointed out that Meghalaya under the leadership of South Tura MLA Conrad had decided to make Meghalaya the gambling destination state.
“My respect and gratitude to the church leaders of Shillong who stood up to protect the values and identity of the Christians and put a stop to it”, he added.
