Conrad on his fil campaign leg

FROM A REPORTER

SHILLONG, Feb 22: tiol People’s Party chief Conrad K. Sangma who is on the last leg of his campaign is covering different constituencies to woo support for NPP candidates.

A tight schedule for Conrad today began at 10 am as he addressed huge rallies at Songsak, Kharkutta, Phulbari, Tikrikilla, Rajabala and Selsella constituencies, seeking people’s mandate for the February 27 elections.

Significantly, he spared time amidst his busy schedule to speak about the election and why this election is important to the NPP in the absence of late Purno Agitok Sangma.

Talking to this scribe on board a chartered chopper, Conrad Sangma said that the NPP would have been in a better position had his father Purno A Sangma, the lone Lok Sabha Speaker from the North-eastern State till date been alive today.

The Tura Lok Sabha MP said, “If he (Purno Sangma) had been there, things would have been far better I feel. Simply because of his persolity, larger than life image, the kind of reach he had would have given rise to a completely different situation. But nonetheless even though he is not there, the fact that he was such a persolity, people still remember him and I think the impact of his work and his past still remains with us and we get positive results because of that.”

He stressed that the main focus of his party after coming to power is infrastructure development, growth of the tourism, heath, education, woman empowerment sectors.

“ We have not been able to tap the potential in the sector of tourism. We are going to make sure that right policies are adopted to ensure that large number of jobs are created, especially through entrepreneurship development. Secondly, we have not been able to add value to agricultural products. Food processing and packaging is going to be one the sector we would like to focus on. We also want to ensure that we take advantage of the 420 plus km of border with Bangladesh.”

At present NPP is contesting in 53 seats in the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly. Reply to a question as to why the voters seek a change this time Conrad said, “Lack of development and unemployment has made the people to look forward for a change. As a party NPP has been able to present itself as an altertive to the Congress at the State level. There was a time when NPP was only considered to be strong in Garo Hills, but now other constituencies have also accepted the NPP.”

Refuting Rahul Gandhi’s remark that the NPP is the ‘B’team of BJP, Conrad denied any alignment with the BJP.

The tiol People’s Party is yet to me its Chief Ministerial candidate. Conrad, however being the most prominent face of the NPP is the most probable candidate for the Chief Minister’s office.