Shillong, Jan 7: National People’s Party (NPP) national president and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday expressed confidence that his party will come back to power in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state. “The NPP will come out with a full mandate and we will get a single majority in the 2023 elections, I am very sure about it,” Sangma said.

I urge the support of the people to Bah Ham as our candidate for Mylliem Constituency

I extend my warmest welcome to Sh. Ivanlumlang Marbaniang, former President of PDF, Sh. Emlang Lytan, former Gen. Secy. of PDF and everyone gathered in support of Bah Ham to the NPP family. pic.twitter.com/o9qnK4rXZA

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) January 7, 2023

He was addressing at a function to welcome former People’s Democratic Front (PDF) leader and cabinet minister Hamletson Dohling along with other leaders to the NPP family. The other leaders of the PDF who joined the NPP include former state president Aiban Marbaniang, former general secretary Emlang Lytan and former chief organizer Ribson Ryntathiang.

Dohling had resigned as legislator of Mylliem constituency on January 5.

Terming Dohling’s joining as a great boost for the NPP, Sangma said, “I am sure that the impact of him and the other leaders joining will not be limited just to Mylliem constituency but the echoes will be heard in different parts of Khasi-Jaintia Hills and even Garo Hills.”

Lauding the people of Mylliem for their wisdom in electing Dohling as their representative, the chief minister said today so many people from the PDF have joined the NPP family because they believe in Dohling’s leadership. He said Dohling’s stand on issues like the inner line permit (ILP), uranium, border and others never changed since the time when he was leader of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU).

“Sometimes people change their stand when they come to politics, what they use to say before, they will not say now but he was very clear that he is coming into politics to carry forward those issues that he had brought out,” Sangma said adding “This is a sign of a leader who is committed to the cause and committed to his people and today the NPP indeed feels lucky and privileged to have a leader like Hamlet joining our family and all the members of the PDF for coming here today.”

The PDF, which is one of the coalition partners supporting the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, has now been left with only two legislators after Dohling and Jason S Mawlong, MLA of Umsning, quit the party.

Stating that running a coalition government is never easy, the chief minister said all political parties and leaders will have their own interests, their own stand, their own areas of concern, and their own way of handling situations. Sangma said that the MDA government had survived numerous challenges in the past four and a half years and has been able to resolve difficult situations and problems.

“We faced numerous challenges when we had law and order problems, different incidents happening, different situations and different problems coming up. We had a large number of challenges in terms of Covid where the government could not function in the normal way for two years and major development works and other works of the government had to be halted.”

“A large number of other challenges like these came in front of us but still we kept moving forward, our government survived, our government moved forward and delivered on the large number of promises that he had made to the people of our state,” he said.

“Difficult situations and difficult problems were resolved by this government in spite of all the challenges and one of the biggest reasons for that is because this government always maintained that we will keep the interest of the people and the state as our top priority. No matter what different political parties and leaders may think, no matter what we may feel, no matter what people may say our decision will be guided by what is best for the people and what is best for the state of Meghalaya,” he added.

The chief minister further said the MDA government and its partners are working as a team and nobody took a decision in an autocratic manner. “We involved every cabinet minister, every MLA, every political party, we listened to everybody, to all the concerns that people had and then came to a decision based on consensus,” he said.

Earlier in his speech, Dohling said he along with the other leaders and supporters of the PDF decided to join the NPP because it is united and is serious about taking up issues which no other party or governments dared to touch.

He said that under the leadership of the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, the NPP-led MDA government has shown seriousness when it comes to sensitive issues like the ILP, border and others.

Ridiculing those who are alleging that the NPP is offering Rs 5 crore for contesting on its ticket, Dohling said, “I want to share with you that I have decided to join the NPP in order to be able to continue serving the people of Mylliem and the state as a whole.”

He said that from day one of his induction as a cabinet minister, he had clearly stated that no uranium mining should take place in Meghalaya. According to him, he had also asked the government to take up the demand for ILP, resolving of the boundary dispute, inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution and other issues concerning the state and its people. “Therefore, we will work hard to make sure that the NPP will be able to form a strong government in order to continue to push for implementation of ILP and other issues,” Dohling added.

Dohling also released a report card on his performance as Mylliem legislator during the last four and a half years. He said the report card highlighted the all-round development in the 36 villages of the constituency.