The woman said she would meet and brief the district election officials. (representative)
Shillong:
An elderly woman in Meghalaya, where a parliamentary poll will be held later this month, has reportedly refused to accept free gifts from participants in the East Khasi Hills district and returned the ‘gifts’ she had given to her family .
Purity Phawa, president of the women’s organization in her place, reportedly even personally told the candidates’ agents that she wants to elect legislators, not distributors.
The election of all 60 seats in the state assembly will take place on February 27 and the count will take place on March 2.
Ms Phawa’s family, who lives in Lumdiengjri in West Shillong constituency, reportedly received freebies on January 28 and 30 from the agents of the ruling National People’s Party candidate Mohindro Rapsang and the United Democratic Party (UDP) party, Paul Lyngdoh.
“I was not home when the freebies arrived. When I returned, my daughter told me that the candidates had sent us a pressure cooker and two sets of imported bowls on January 28 and 30,” Phawa told PTI on Friday.
“I called the agents who delivered the freebies and they confirmed that the candidates had sent the gifts. The UDP candidate also sent a calendar,” she said.
Ms Phawa claimed she returned the freebies on Thursday and asked candidates not to hand them out if they want to become lawmakers. “Or they can choose to become a distributor,” was her terse reply.
Ms Phawa also claimed she would meet with district election officials on Friday to formally inform them of the “freebies” being handed out by the candidates in her constituency, Rapsang, a first-time opposition congressional MLA who switched to Prime Minister Conrad K’s ruling NPP Sangma recently reportedly handed out pressure cookers to voters ahead of the election.
He vehemently denied giving free gifts and insisted the pressure cookers came from his MLA funds.
Paul is a sitting member of the Tribal Council and a former MLA who lost to Rapsang in 2018.
When asked about the alleged freebies being distributed by their agents, both expressed ignorance. They said that the model code of conduct is in place and there is no way for the candidates to do that.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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