Dylan of East India not to contest Meghalaya elections

Shillong, Feb 15 (UNI) The assembly elections in Meghalaya will be made poorer with the inability of singer-songwriter Louis Majaw to contest the March 3 assembly polls from Laitumkhrah.

60-year-old Majaw, known as ''Bob Dylan of East India'', has been advised to take bed rest after he suffered a slip disc.

On Wednesday night, Majaw met his doctors, legal advisers, friends and supporters on whether to leave the hospital bed and file his nomination papers to contest the election.

''I have prepared myself to join the electoral battle, but now I have to give up due to my ill-health,'' an annoyed Mr Majaw told UNI at a private nursing home here.

The musician, however, said he would continue to prepare himself for the Lok Sabha elections from Shillong parliamentary constituency. ''Perhaps God has bigger plans for me and that maybe as an MP,'' he said.

Asked about the rock legend he said, ''I want to fulfil what our former representatives have failed to reach.'' Majaw, a tribal Khasi guitarist and one of the biggest fans of Bob Dylan in India, is a popular musician in the country and South East Asian countries.

In 1966, Majaw was introduced to Bob Dylan's work and later orgainsed annual Dylan's birthday concert in Shillong to pay obeissance to the singer. He also fronted a band, Great Society.

Congress MLA and Education Minister Robert G.Lyngdoh was part of the rock band.

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