Politics / Meghalaya

Shillong, Jan. 20: The Meghalaya PCC today openly admitted that it has been forced to remain in the People?s Forum of Meghalaya (PFM) coalition government for the past 13 months, knowing fully well that it was ?making a mistake? and the government was not performing up to expectations.

While releasing the party?s manifesto here today, Congress president S.C. Marak admitted that his party has had to compromise its agenda in ?coalition politics?.

Without mincing words he said the party had made mistakes while being a part of the PFM coalition. He also admitted that the Congress had compromised...

Shillong, Jan. 19: In poll parlance, a sensitive booth usually connotes a place where the authorities apprehend violence. In a departure of sorts, polling stations within the striking distance of rampaging elephants in the hills of Ri Bhoi and other Meghalaya districts have also been declared ?sensitive?.

The Election Commission has sought help from the forest department to ensure that voting is not disrupted by the elephants, who are posing an ?equally serious threat?.

The state election commission today said the forest department has been asked to provide logistic support to polling...

SHILLONG, Jan 19 ? The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), J M Lyngdoh Saturday said that he was satisfied with the poll preparations in Meghalaya going to the Assembly elections on February 26. Addressing a press conference here, Lyngdoh said the preparation was much better than that of the last elections in 1998. The CEC said that he was hopeful that the election in the State would be smooth as the State was more peaceful than Tripura and Nagaland.

Lyngdoh praised the State election authorities for covering 80 per cent of the total 12,79,740 voters under photo Identity Cards, and said that...

Shillong, Jan. 17: Meghalaya chief minister F.A. Khonglam is keeping the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on tenterhooks as he is still undecided on whether to contest on a party ticket from Sohra constituency.

The NCP released its third list of candidates recently but Khonglam?s name still did not figure in it. The chief minister is currently an associate member of the party.

While announcing the names of candidates approved by the party at Jaintia Hills, NCP president Robert Kharshiing told The Telegraph a couple of days back that the party was waiting for the chief minister to apply for a...

GUWAHATI, Jan 16? The Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) has urged, the State Government to take up ?strongly? with the Government of Meghalaya the alleged ?unprovoked armed invasion? of Karbi Anglong by the Meghalaya Police (MLP) last Monday. The Committee has demanded that such ?illegal and objectionable behaviour? by the MLP should not be repeated in future.

ASDC publicity secretary Dharamsing Teron, in a press release this evening, said that armed MLP personnel, claiming to be a Special Operation Team (SOT), had entered Karbi, Anglong through Umjakiri, under Baithalangso police...

SHILLONG, Jan 13— The Khasi Jaintia Church Leaders’ Forum (KJCLF) has urged the Government and the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to hold unconditional talks in order to arrive at a lasting solution to the vexed problem of insurgency in the State.

The church leaders expressed concern over the prevailing law-and-order situation in the capital city which has witnessed violent deaths of youths in recent times.

Addressing a meeting of the Forum her on Friday the KJCLF president Bishop Purely Lyngdoh stressed the fact that militancy could be solved only through...

Shillong, Jan. 13: Electioneering in Meghalaya promises to be a glamourous affair with the cream of Bollywood being roped in by most national parties for campaigning. While the BJP glamour list boasts of names such as Juhi Chawla, Shekhar Suman and actors-turned-politicians Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha, the Congress list includes the name of former actor-politician Sunil Dutt.

While for the parties “it is a question of who can outshine the other in the race for power”, voters are sceptical. Sanju Pradhan, a voter from Pynthormukhrah, said: “The parties should focus more on the real...

NEW DELHI JAN. 12. Politics in the north-east is not what it is in the rest of the country. Parties on the same side of the political fence elsewhere find themselves in opposite camps here and as for the regional parties, it is anybody's guess which way they will go.

The scene in the run-up to the next month Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland presents an interesting picture.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which runs two coalition Governments with the Congress in Maharashtra and Meghalaya, will be its main rival in Meghalaya this time. And in Nagaland, the NCP is in...

Shillong, Jan. 10: The Congress is likely to face a stiff challenge in the two Meghalaya districts of East Garo Hills and Ri Bhoi in the forthcoming Assembly polls. Considered as traditional Congress bastions, the two districts, represented, among others, by former chief ministers S.C. Marak and D.D. Lapang, are likely to be affected by the “anti-Congress wave” created by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Another factor likely to hurt the party’s prospects is the “agreement” between the NCP and the United Democratic Party (UDP) to help each other out in key constituencies.

Also doing...

Shillong, Jan. 9: After the talks with the NSCN (I-M) leaders, the Centre is likely to start negotiations with the banned outfit from the Garo Hills — the A’chik National Volunteers’ Council — in the first week of February. Though a date is yet to be fixed, highly placed sources said both New Delhi and the ANVC have agreed to meet in New Delhi and “work out a settlement”. Sources in the Garo Hills said the ANVC has already held two meetings with the Centre’s representatives where it “agreed” to meet the Central leaders without any preconditions.

The ANVC has welcomed New Delhi’s acceptance of...