National People's Party (NPP) national president and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday said that NPP is not only a "Made In Northeast" party but a "Made For Northeast people" party.
Sangma was addressing a one-day political convention of the party in Tamenglong, Manipur, as a part of the party's campaign trail for the ensuing 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly election.
Seeking the people's mandate for NPP candidate of 53-Tamenglong Assembly constituency Janghemlung Panmei, the NPP national president reiterated that if the people of the Northeast and Manipur unite, the people can compete with the rest of the world. Let us all unite under one political platform (NPP) to bring change in Manipur and Northeast, Sangma said.
"Today the NPP is one of the fastest growing parties in the country. We are a national party. We are truly a 'Made in Northeast party', people of the Northeast have made NPP with best vision and the seeds that have been shown for a much better Northeast, for the Northeast that would be able to compete with the rest of the world," Sangma said addressing a huge crowd at the Mini Stadium in Tamenglong.
Sangma alleged that some elected leaders were unable to ensure the basic democratic rights of the hill people by not conducting the ADC elections. He urged the people to raise the question why the ADC elections were not held.
"I sometimes fail to understand that there have been leaders who have come and ask for the vote to fight for the people of the hills, to fight for your rights, to make sure that the development you deserve and yet these people too are unable to give you the basic democratic rights for the ADC elections in any of the district councils, why? The people of the hill areas must ask the question: why were these ADC elections not held. What has stopped them from ensuring that the election for the district council should be held? Isn't that our primary right?" Sangma questioned.
Maintaining that the district councils must be formed by the vote of the people, Sangma added, "If we cannot form the district council how do we ensure that our other developments and other rights are given to us? We must remember that we must select leaders who will truly fight for us, truly take our people forward".
The NPP national president further urged all, including the rival candidates and supporters, to check the NPP's election manifesto, to clarify their doubts regarding the party having reservation for some communities.
"There are many people who have a political agenda and are talking about the NPP having a different agenda in the manifesto that we have reservation for some communities. The Opposition has no other points to make so they play politics, they twist our words. Don't fall for such cheap politics. Look at our manifesto and see if that agenda is mentioned. Yes, we are concerned about every community. We must consult everybody and the NPP believes in that. We must consult and respect different stakeholders before we move forward in any decision. We assure you as a party and as a government that we will ensure to take all communities forward together," Sangma added.
The one-day political convention was also attended by Manipur Deputy Chief Minister and NPP national vice-president Y Joykumar Singh and Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, among others.
Manipur will go to polls in two phases on February 28 and March 5 for the election to the 60-member state Legislative Assembly.
