Five months away from Assembly election, a new political party called Achik National Congress (ANC) has been launched in Garo Hills. The newly floated political party has made the creation of a new Garo state its mantra. ANC President Sengrak D Marak said the dream of a separate Garo state will be fulfilled only if there is political will. Marak said this was precisely the reason why the new political party was launched. He added that the ANC delegation will approach the Election Commission to get itself registered as a political party. The Garo Students’ Union (GSU) is also supporting the new political party. Additional General Secretary of GSU Elijah Marak said that Garo Hills will never prosper till the time it remains in Meghalaya. The ANC has already announced the names of two candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls. Rakkan M Sangma, ANC candidate for Rongchugre constituency, will take on James K Sangma, elder son of P A Sangma. Rakkan Sangma fell out with the former Lok Sabha Speaker after the latter cleared the candidature of his son. The ANC would announce more candidates after getting itself registered with the Election Commission. This, however, is not the first time that a political party will be making a separate Garo state its election plank. The Garo National Council (GNC) had made a separate Garo state an election issue in the 1990s.
