Resubelpara (Meghalaya): No doubt, 78-year-old NPP candidate in the Resubelpara assembly segment in North Garo Hills Timothy Dalbot Shira is taking on BJP rival Sukharam Sangma and others in the constituency. But he is a die-hard Narendra Modi fan and regrets that his party could not contest the 2023 elections in alliance with the Lotus party.
“Narendra Modi is a capable man “, he told ‘Organiser’ in a brief interview and maintained that both the parties should have contested the February 27 polls together.
Asked to elaborate on why he would admire the Prime Minister, he said, “Firstly, during the two and half year long pandemic Lockdown there’s not a single village left in my state wherein they can complain that the food grains given for poor people during that period did not reach them”.
He further said, “It is true many people in Meghalaya like him (PM Modi) and I also like him”. Moreover, he said, there is another thing, “Under Modi’s Prime Ministership, India has become strong in the defence sector”.
He said it would have been good if the BJP and his party, the NPP led by Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, had contested the elections together after five years of alliance.
Dalbot Shira, who started his career in Meghalaya many years back with the popular regional party APHLC, also lauded Prime Minister Modi for being a technology-savvy leader.
“During the time of Indira Gandhi, technology did not develop so much, but Modi is the Prime Minister when technology is fully developed. And today, everything depends on technology,” the senior NPP leader said.
The ensuing contest is this year’s polls at Resubelpara has turned interesting. According to local voters here, the contest is essentially between three parties the BJP, the NPP of Conrad Sangma and the Trinamool Congress, whose face in Meghalaya is former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
Talking to this journalist, BJP candidate Sukharam Sangma said he has a fair chance of winning.
“There is a growing demand for BJP now in Meghalaya. People realise that developments in BJP-ruled states are exemplary. Look how Assam is developing after BJP came to power in 2016. But in Meghalaya, development is still stagnant even after 50 years of statehood,” he said.
Sukharam said people had seen both the parties and all others – the Congress, the NCP and now the NPP, “But nothing has come for the poor people. In Assam everyone can see the development. Look at the road conditions. Even village roads are improved today”.
The BJP leader said people in Garo hills in Meghalaya enthusiastically support the BJP because they want an engineering, medical, and agriculture college.
“I will say to bring BJP to power in Meghalaya is now a people’s movement,” Sukharam said.
