The Nationalist Congress Party, after years of political dormancy in Meghalaya, is attempting a aggressive comeback, declaring its intent to contest all 29 seats in the upcoming Garo Hills Autonomous District Council elections. Holding a State Executive Committee meeting of Meghalaya NCP at Songsak, North East Incharge Sanjay Prajapati positioned the move as a decisive strike to reclaim lost ground, promising to clear 43 months of pending GHADC employees’ salaries with interest, while pledging to restructure the Executive Committee into a people-driven body capable of settling local issues within a month.
Prajapati said, “If elected in the MDC elections then along with 43 months salaries interest will also be given to the employees of Garo Hills Autonomous District Council,” he asserted. He further promised swift governance, saying, “All the local issues will be settled within a month, if voted to power. We will address all the public issued, the Executive Committee will belong to the people and people will have right to take decisions.”
The NCP, which lost its sheen after P.A. Sangma floated the National People’s Party in 2013—prompting its legislators to defect—has since witnessed a series of political setbacks. From Sanbor Shullai’s defection to the BJP to Saleng A. Sangma’s shift to Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, the party was left without a single legislator or MDC in the state.
Now, banking on organizational discipline and grassroots rejuvenation, Prajapati asserted that candidate selection will follow meritocratic principles. “We are going to contest in all the 29 seats in Garo Hills, NCP will contest MDC elections in Garo on its own capacity. All the candidates will be selected by the Selection Committee through proper procedure and direct candidate will not be made. Whoever becomes part of the party first will get first preference, not to the outsiders.”
With this aggressive push, the NCP is attempting not just to stage a comeback but to script a revival narrative in Meghalaya’s turbulent political theatre.
