SHILLONG, FEB 16: Leader of the opposition All India Trinamool Congress and former chief minister Mukul Sangma on Friday informed that the party will soon announce its candidate from the Tura parliamentary seat for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“I think by tomorrow or latest by Monday, we will be declaring the candidate for Tura,” Sangma said.
He said the party however is still discussing whether to contest from the Shillong seat.
Sangma said, “We have been engaging in this dialogue within the four walls though as far as the INDIA Bloc is concerned. It has taken its own time but then subsequently, you have seen how things have unfolded and therefore, most of the constituent parties in the INDIA Bloc have decided to go solo and then put up their own candidates.”
“So in as far as Meghalaya is concerned, we waited patiently and indications were that negotiations were still on but it appears that it may not come to fruition so therefore, we have two seats, the only decision is whether to fight both the seats or not. But then from our side, we have always maintained that we would like to fight one seat and let the other be fought by the other parties and let there be some effort to put that collective endeavour since we share the common objective of taking on the current dispensation but then things will be finalised in a couple of days,” he added.
Sangma said that he does not intend to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha poll.
“I don’t want to reduce the number in the House of 60 in as far as the Assembly is concerned.
I am for state politics. It is a small state though but then issues confronting the people, confronting the state require collective endeavour of all concerns. Therefore, I started my innings with the sole intention of focusing on state politics in 1993 and I continue to do so,” he said.
