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Election fever heats up in Meghalaya’s Garo Hills
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, will visit the region on February 20, though the venue has not been disclosed yet
Updated : Feb 28, 2018, 09:07 PM IST
 "Election")
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With barely 10 days for the Meghalaya Assembly elections, the Garo Hills is where politicians from all parties are flocking to. Congress president Rahul Gandhi will hold three meetings across the Hills on February 19, before he flies to Shillong and Jowai on February 20.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, will visit the region on February 20, though the venue has not been disclosed yet. Home Minister Rajnath Singh will land here on February 19 to hold meeting in several localities around the day.
In an election where the Congress is fighting hard not to lose out to a emergent National People's Party (NPP), it is the Garo Hills where the toughest battles will be fought. Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, who is contesting from Ampati constituency, is looking for a comfortable win. So is NPP's Conrad Sangma.
Yet, the region has always been significant in Meghalaya politics. Before Mukul Sangma, the most well-known name from the region was Conrad's father Purno Sangma, who was the first and only Lok Sabha speaker from the entire Northeastern region. The region has 24 seats and the fight is going to play out between the Congress and the NPP, which had emerged as a serious threat in the last five years.
In the Khasi and Jaintia Hills with 36 seats, the Congress and the NPP will have to contest with an alliance of two regional parties the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP).
The NPP which is a BJP ally in Manipur as well as Rajasthan has been wary of declaring an alliance in Meghalaya where the Christians, a mortify in the state's population, has been wary of the BJP's anti-beef politics. Conrad has in the past written letters to the Centre to protest about its anti-beef policies. To undo its damage, the BJP sent in Tourism Minister Alphons Kannanthanam, the party's lone Christian face in Union Cabinet.
But the Centre's denial of a visa to Paul Msiza, president of the Baptist World Alliance and the religious head of the Baptist World Community, who was going to attend an event commemorating 150 years of the Garo Baptist Church in Meghalaya, has led to a lot of distrust among the people in the state and might even weigh heavy on the BJP, as well as NPP.
Meghalaya goes to the elections on February 27.
