Shillong, June 3: NPP leader James P K Sangma is set to be elected as the new MP to the Rajya Sabha from Meghalaya as the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) has decided to field him for the election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the State which will be held on June 18.
The MDA-2 coalition with 45 MLAs on its side in its meeting held in Shillong today agreed on the candidature of Sangma for the Rajya Sabha contest.
The meeting which was attended by representatives from NPP, UDP, HSPDP and BJP passed a resolution to support Sangma as proposed by the NPP.
During the meeting Chief Minister Conrad Sangma who is also the national president of NPP and Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong who is the State president of the party put forward their views stating that the party has decided on the name of James Sangma for the Rajya Sabha contest.
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Briefing media persons after the meeting, UDP MLA, Paul Lyngdoh said that initially constituents of the MDA had expressed interest in fielding their own nominees as official candidates of the ruling alliance. He however did not disclose the name of the parties that wanted to put up such contenders.
“In the course of the discussions, members from the constituent units expressed their various points and indicated their willingness to have their party nominees selected and endorsed as official candidate of the MDA,” Lyngdoh said.
He also informed that since there was no concensus on the matter, the alliance reverted to the established practice of supporting the nominee proposed by a party that has the most MLAs.
“Since the various parties had proposed various names belonging to their respective parties and there being no point of concensus on a single name, it was decided to follow the established convention of endorsing the proposal put forward by the largest constituent, that is the NPP, in order to ensure cohesion and unanimity,” he said.
He also said that the meeting finally endorsed the NPP’s proposal for the candidature of James Sangma as a Rajya Sabha candidate of the MDA.
Lyngdoh also said that as far as the upcoming by-election to the Lok Sabha from Shillong seat is concerned, the coalition decided to let the parties to decide whether to put up their own candidates or support any candidate, stay neutral, or stay away from the contest.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma informed that James Sangma would file his nomination papers on June 5.
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