Shillong, Aug. 28: Former Meghalaya PCC president O.L. Nongtdu said he was keen to contest the Lok Sabha polls rather than concentrating on state politics.

“If present MP Vincent Pala wants to come back to state politics, I am ready to contest the Lok Sabha polls,” he told reporters. Nongtdu said he was also not averse to the idea of getting nominated to Rajya Sabha.

Nongtdu, a former Rajya Sabha MP, resigned as PCC president on September 6, 2008, after Friday Lyngdoh was appointed the president of the party by the Congress high command.

In April, former chief minister D.D. Lapang was appointed the new president of the party. There were reports that Nongtdu will be leading the Meghalaya unit of Trinamul Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.

However, Nongtdu said though the Trinamul Congress had approached him, he refused to join the party.

“I have no plan to leave the Congress and will continue to remain with the party,” he said.

Nongtdu said though he would not contest the Assembly polls in Meghalaya, he would work hard for the party to ensure the victory of the Congress in the coming Assembly polls.

The Congress has already started issuing applications for party tickets and the last date is August 31.

While the UDP has finalised the candidates for 37 seats, other parties are in the process of finalising the candidates.

With the setback to state the NCP following the merger of majority NCP MLAs with National People’s Party (NPP), other political parties in the state hope that they can improve their positions.

NPP leader Conrad Sangma recently said leaving the NCP would not derail the political prospects of the new party as steps were on to strengthen the NPP from at the grassroots level starting from various blocks.