Shillong/UNI: In poll-bound Meghalaya, Congress will micro-manage its election campaign mainly concentrating on door-to-door connections.

Speaking to UNI, Vincent H Pala, President of Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee said, "In order to cut on election expenditure and establish a personal connect with the voters we will follow the rule of people to people connect."

The Meghalaya Congress president said he will not be hosting big rallies in the Sutnga-Saipung constituency from where he is contesting the Assembly election.

Pala, a former Union Minister of Water Resources and the sitting member of Parliament of Congress from Meghalaya’s Shillong Lok Sabha constituency, who is also contesting the upcoming assembly elections in the state, said he is confident that Congress will do better than expected.

"Our candidates are making personal connections with the voters in each constituency. And that will be the difference in this election," Pala said.

He expressed confidence that the people of the state still trust Congress.

"We won’t go for aggressive campaigning and people by this time have very well known what the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), Trinamool and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are doing," Pala said.

Speaking about Congress legislators leaving the party, Pala said, "They left giving us ample time to select candidates whose heart is with Congress. We could now project to the people new faces with a zeal to work for the people."

After emerging as the single largest party with 21 in 2018 elections, Congress in Meghalaya suffered setbacks when 12 out of 17 Congress MLAs left the party and joined the Trinamool Congress in November 2021 and in 2022 the remaining five were suspended for their anti-party activities also deserted the party.

He said that this time the party has fielded many young and fresh faces as the state needs young leaders to lead the state.

Pala also added that Congress will go to the people seeking a clear mandate.

"We are confident of winning more than 35 seats on our own to form the government," he added.

On the political equation emerging in the state in case of a fractured mandate, Pala said that any post or pre-poll alliance will depend on the consent of the party's high command.