The National People’s Party (NPP) is in the final phase of finalising candidates for the forthcoming Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) elections, with the process expected to conclude within this week. Party leaders indicated that internal consultations are nearing completion and a formal announcement of candidates will follow shortly, amid expectations of a largely direct contest with the Congress in the region.
NPP Working President in charge of Garo Hills, Marcuise N Marak, said the party has entered the concluding stage of its selection exercise. “With regards to Garo Hills Autonomous District Council elections, we are at the final stages of selecting our candidates and will be finalising our candidates within this week probably. We will be declaring all the candidates very soon. And we are working on some other constituencies now,” Marak said.
He noted that although several names have already been internally cleared, the party has delayed formal declaration to complete organisational consultations.
“Some of the names of the candidates have already been finalised, but we have not declared yet, it’s kept pending because we need to have discussion with our committee members as well. So we are at the final stage of considering the candidates,” he said.
Marak said the party will contest all 29 seats in Garo Hills, with varying levels of competition among aspirants across constituencies. “Some of the constituencies, you know, seven candidates were there. We will contest in all the 29 seats in Garo Hills. Some constituencies have as many as seven candidates, while some constituency has three or four candidates, while one two are very few,” he said.
On the expected electoral contest, Marak indicated that the Congress is likely to be the principal challenger. “I would say that may be Congress might be the next party who will be fighting with us,” he said, adding that the contest in Garo Hills is expected to be largely bipolar.
The opposition landscape remains fluid, with the Meghalaya Trinamool Congress (TMC) reportedly receiving 26 applications from 16 constituencies. However, only two sitting Members of District Council have applied for party tickets, while four have not. Commenting on this, Marak said, “Party is a party, Meghalaya TMC have asked their sitting MDCs to contest independently.”
Meanwhile, speculation over any postponement of the GHADC elections has been dismissed by the state government. Deputy Chief Minister in charge of District Council Affairs Prestone Tynsong ruled out deferment, stating, “the term of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council is ending on April 18, so well before that the election process has to be completed.”
With the election schedule expected shortly, political activity has intensified across the Garo Hills as parties step up preparations for the 29-member autonomous council polls.
