By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The formal merger of KHNAM with the UDP has finally taken place on Monday.
The merger of the two parties also ended the journey of KHNAM as a political party after nearly ten years since it was constituted.
Actually, KHNAM was carved out of the KSU with a good number of its former leaders becoming the major constituents, including former KSU president Paul Lyngdoh leading from the front as the party president.
Meanwhile, the formal induction ceremony of the KHNAM leaders including its party workers was held at Laban Sports Club premises on Monday.
As part of this formal induction, the KHNAM Central Executive Committee including its party president and the two MDCs- Latiplang Kharkongor and James Ban Basaiawmoit also registered themselves as members of the UDP.
On the occasion, UDP Working President Bindo M Lanong who presided over the induction ceremony also made a formal announcement that KHNAM president has been appointed the Party’s Working President.
Lanong also read out the resolution which was passed as part of this formal merger of the two parties.
Meanwhile, speaking on the occasion, UDP president Donkupar Roy warned that there should be no factions of the KHNAM or the UDP after this merger.
“The main objective of this merger is the unity of the leaders and members of both parties. We cannot afford to have a faction in the UDP since it would have an adverse affect on the party,” Dr Roy said.
He also maintained that the unity of the members would help the party to achieve its aims and objectives.
The UDP president reiterated that the UDP has always believed in the unity of the regional parties.
“I am really happy to see the merger of KHNAM with the UDP. This definitely is a positive step towards unity of the regional parties,”
Dr Roy said while adding that he was hopeful the merger would brighten up the party’s prospects in the upcoming 2013 Assembly elections.
The UDP President pointed out that in the 39 years of statehood, UDP president informed that the regional parties have got the chance to rule the State only for five years.
“This only proves that the Congress has ruled the State for maximum number of years. The blame should go to the Congress for whatever is happening in the State today,” he said.
The UDP president is hopeful that the people of the State would give the regional parties the chance to rule the State to prove that they can deliver better.
Meanwhile, justifying the decision for the merger, KHNAM president, Paul Lyngdoh said the merger is result of an exhaustive exercise which has been carried out for over 36 months.”We have arrived at this decision of merging with the UDP after taking the majority of leaders and party workers into confidence. Not only this, more than 97 percent of the people who attended the General Council voted in favour of the merger,” Lyngdoh who is now the UDP Working President said.While trumpeting the unity slogan, he said that the prime reason for the failure of the regional parties is due to its infighting.
On many occasions various regional parties have come forward to work together, Lyngdoh said, but they have not been able to provide the desired results because of internal strife.Citing the example of the Assembly bye-election at Umroi in 2009, he said that the only reason the Congress won the seat is because the UDP and HSPDP set up their own candidates and fought each other.The Congress candidate Stanly Wis Rymbai won the election with a total vote count of 11,773, whereas the regional party combine got 11, 928 votes, the new UDP Working President said.”The unity of the regional parties is the only way to create an impact,” Paul Lyngdoh asserted. He further clarified that it is misleading to say this merger is for his personal interest.Defending his stance of joining the UDP, Lyngdoh said, “If I would have considered only my personal interests I could have joined the Congress. In fact, I could have easily won the next Assembly election since there are 3000 Congress votes in 18-Shillong West.”