Shillong, June 21: The opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) on Wednesday became the first political party to announce its candidate for the Shillong parliamentary seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha election to be held next year. It has nominated Dr Ricky AJ Syngkon as its candidate.

“The state election committee (SEC) had met on June 16 and after a threadbare discussion had decided to nominate the party’s general secretary Dr Ricky AJ Syngkon as the official candidate from Shillong parliamentary seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha election to be held in 2024,” VPP vice president Dr Kara Chen told reporters.

The VPP has four MLAs in the 60-member Assembly.

Asked on how confident the party was to win the Shillong seat, Dr Chen said, “As a political party, once we enter the fray, whether we win or lose it will not depend on the number of MLAs we are having as it is up to the people to decide.”

The vice president also announced that the VPP will not seek the support of other political parties in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

“We have decided to fight the MP election on our own. We will not seek the support of other political parties because we want to depend on the support of the people. The party in the last Assembly election also did not align with any political parties,” he said.

He also added, “The ideology of the VPP is also different from the other regional parties so it is difficult for us to work with them.”

Highlighting the issues to be raised by the VPP if elected to the Parliament, Dr Chen said, “If the people elect our candidate, we feel we will be in a position to raise issues which include the long pending demand for implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP)in the state.”

“If the people give us a chance to represent them in Parliament, we will definitely raise the issue of ILP,” he said while adding that “It is difficult to comment (on the delay of the Centre to implement ILP) but the political leadership is not very keen to put pressure on the Centre (to implement the ILP in Meghalaya).”

On the criteria for allotting the party ticket, the vice president said the party had received a number of applications and many also approached the president expressing their interest to contest the election.

Apart from Dr Syngkon, there were two other applicants – Dr Bahunlang Tron, an Asst. professor in PGT college and Prof Lakhon Kma, a profession of NEHU.

“Since Syngkon is the general secretary of the party, we feel he is right person to contest from our party,” he said.

To another query, Dr Chen said that the party did not want to field its president Ardent M Basaiawmoit as candidate for the MP election because he has to concentrate on the party in the state.

Also Read: Meghalaya: Edu Min Rakkam A Sangma felicitates Toppers of SSLC Examination 2023 in Tura

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