By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The UDP leadership has preferred to downplay the action of its party legislator from Nongkrem Ardent Miller Basiawmoit in questioning the ideology of the party and for terming the party as team-B of the Congress.
“Every individual member of the party is free to air his individual viewpoints. It is not right for the party to restrict individual members of the party from speaking their minds,” UDP working president Bindo Mathew Lanong said while defending the actions of the Nongkrem UDP legislator here on Monday.
When asked why the party is shying away from taking any action against Basiawmoit since this not the first time that the legislator has taken on the party leadership, UDP president Dr Donkupar Roy refused to give a direct reply to this query.
To another query about whether the Nongkrem legislator would contest from the UDP since he had not replied to the show-cause notice from the party Dr Roy said he did not want to discuss the internal matters of the party publicly.
“We had issued the notice to Basiawmoit since he had express that he might not contest from the party if it does not review its ideology,” Dr Roy said.
When asked to clarify the UDP legislator’s allegations that some senior leaders are trying to oust him out of the party, the UDP president said there is no truth in this allegation.
“He (Basaiawmoit) is still part and parcel of the UDP,” Dr Roy said.
He however pointed out that the ongoing campaign of the party legislator from Nongkrem for resolving the boundary dispute is in sync with the party stand.