Raphael Warjri

Meghalaya BJP national council member and senior BJP member from Garo Hills, Rikman Momin, was appointed as the new state president of the party, replacing Ernest Mawrie.

A notification was issued by the party’s national general secretary and headquarter-in-charge Arun Singh, mentioning that the BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda has appointed Rikman Momin as state president of Meghalaya BJP.

Mawrie said he was grateful to the central leaders for having worked as president for three years. ” We work as a team. It is the system in the party: when the term is over, we elect the new president. I will continue to work for the party to strengthen it,” said Mawrie.

Asked why the seat was uncontested, Mawrie said the decision was made by the central leaders. He explained that in the party, they have always followed the nomination process.

“There are two systems, nomination and election, till today, we have been practising nomination. When they appointed me as president in 2020, it was like an election because we had three contenders, AL Hek and David Khasrsati, and I was elected as president,”
said Mawrie.

Since the name came as a shock for many party members, Mawrie mentioned that there was no discussion on the candidate or whom he would recommend.

The new BJP president Rikman Momin is expected to take over in a day or so.