Shillong Jan 31: The National People’s Party (NPP) is in a dilemma over the exit of its Ranikor candidate Martin Danggo, who is set to join the BJP.
President of the NPP South West Khasi Hills District Kitboklang Nongrem told reporters on Tuesday that as Danggo has betrayed the people, the party will hold a general meeting at Rangthong on February 2 to decide on the candidate.
“The meeting will be to reconstitute the party. In the next few days, Danggo will give his resignation but we cannot wait as we need to take action early,” he said.
Nongrem said this is not the first time that the former five-time legislator had deserted the party.
“When we were planning to contest the MDC by-election after the demise of N Marwein that time he (Danggo) again went back to the Congress. After that, he came back to the party. We didn’t expect that such an incident would take place and that he would betray us again,” he said.
The state leaders have tried very hard to convince Danggo to stay in the party but he refused to pay heed to their request and have finally decided to jump to another political party, he said.
Nongrem denied the allegation made by Danggo’s supporter Pelcy Snaitang that the NPP leaders are supporting the United Democratic Party (UDP) legislator Pius Marwein as they do not want Danggo to win from Ranikor.
“This is not a fact that me and my team are trying to campaign against Danggo in this coming elections,” he said.
Clarifying the message which Starting was referring to, Nongrem said it was just “a text (or debate) in a whatsapp group between me and one PS Lyngdoh who had alleged that all 36 MLAs of Khasi-Jaintia Hills are useless.”
To a question whether he is ready to contest the election from Ranikor, Nongrem said it will depend on the party leaders and supporters but he cannot say anything since “the party is not his personal property”.
“We also have so many leaders in my team and ultimately we will take decisions as per suggestions and advice from leaders of the different polling station committees.”
Nongrem admitted that Danggo’s betrayal will affect the party in Ranikor constituency
“We cannot deny the fact that if the family is divided it will affect both sides – NPP and Danggo,” he said.
Ampareen annoyed
Earlier in the day, the NPP spokesperson Ampareen Lyngdoh said the flip-flop trend in politics is very unfortunate.
