CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: With the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council elections slated for next year, the National People’s Party has triggered an intense, high-stakes race for party tickets, as some sitting NPP MLAs have collected application forms to seek the party’s ticket for the upcoming GHADC elections. The surge of interest from heavyweight leaders and first-time aspirants has turned the upcoming polls into both a test of the party’s organizational depth and an informal referendum on the performance of incumbent lawmakers, who now find themselves competing within their own ranks.
NPP working president and Cabinet Minister Marcuise N Marak confirmed that “some sitting NPP MLAs have taken the party’s application and are seeking the party’s ticket for the upcoming GHADC elections scheduled to be held next year.”
Stressing that winnability remains the party’s principal filter, he said the final decision would be guided by an intensive, tiered survey system. “Once the last date for submission of applications is completed, we will have a meeting, and if we find multiple applicants for a particular constituency, we will form an observer. We will send observers to constituencies, and they will carry out extensive discussions with party leaders, including local MLAs and party workers at the grassroots. After receiving the inputs, we will have another meeting and we will discuss at the district as well as block levels. Finally, we will go for winnability. It will be based on a survey — we will do the survey, the party will do the survey, and the Chief Minister has his own survey team to conduct the survey.”
Conceding that incumbency pressure remains a political constant, Marak noted that “anti-incumbency is always there whenever a ruling party goes to the polls,” while insisting that the NPP has “resolved the issues that arose at GHADC.”
He further revealed that the party has extended its ticket application deadline in response to the overwhelming influx of aspirants, with the submission window now pushed to November 30.
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