The Bharatiya Janata Party in Meghalaya is set to take a crucial call on whether to enter the fray in the upcoming bye-election to the Shillong Lok Sabha constituency, which fell vacant following the demise of sitting Member of Parliament Dr. Ricky AJ Syngkon of the Voice of the People Party. The state BJP leaders said that for the bye elections, they would impress upon the central BJP leadership to field a candidate, as party karyakartas would prefer to have their own nominee in the fray.
The vacancy has triggered internal deliberations within the BJP, which had extended support to its ally, the National People’s Party, during the 2024 Lok Sabha election following directions from the central leadership.
Senior Meghalaya BJP legislator and National Executive member AL Hek said the State leadership has already initiated consultations and informed the State BJP president to convene a meeting at the earliest.
“Very soon Meghalaya State BJP leadership will sit as they have already informed the State BJP President to call the meeting to discuss about this impending bye elections,” Hek said.
He indicated that discussions are under way within the party on whether to field a candidate for the bypoll.
“From the party point of view we are also discussing this to set up or not to set up candidates for the MP bye elections for the Shillong seat scheduled to be held soon. We have candidates, we have so many aspiring candidates are there but till now we have not decided to field anyone to contest bye election,” he said.
Reiterating that a final decision is yet to be taken, he added, “Very soon we will sit we have already informed the State BJP President to call the meeting to discuss about this impending bye elections.”
Clarifying the party’s position in the event it decides to contest, Hek said, “If we have to contest we will have our own candidate only, we will not be supporting any candidate.”
Referring to the party’s stand in the last general election, he said, “In 2024 the instructions has come from central leadership to support NPP nominee, we followed what central leadership have instructions.”
He maintained that the matter remains under discussion. “We are under discussion, we will have the meeting and after that we will take a call,” he said.
Meghalaya BJP spokesperson M. Kharkrang echoed the sentiment of the State unit while reiterating that the final decision would rest with the central leadership.
“From state BJP Meghalaya we would prefer to contest elections but if there are any instructions coming from Central BJP leadership we will follow,” Kharkrang said.
Highlighting the party’s electoral performance, he added, “Vote share of BJP since 2023 Assembly elections has increased probably if we had contested 2024 MP election it would have grown some more. For the bye elections, we will impress upon central BJP leadership to have candidate for the bye elections because the karyakartas would like to have their own candidate.”
