By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: UDP working president Bindo Mathew Lanong has revealed that there are people from other political parties who are trying to create rift among the party members on the issue of allocation of the party ticket for the Nongthymmai seat.
“We have confirmed reports that members of other political parties in Nongthymmai constituency are trying to get into the party for the wrong reasons. We strongly suspect that they are attempting to create division among the party members as they are fully aware that there are two ticket aspirants for the seat,” Lanong said on Sunday.
While refusing to take a dig on any particular party, the UDP working president said it is definitely an attempt by certain political parties who would be benefitted if there are any problems within the UDP.
“We have taken all possible steps to see that the party members remain intact. We would not want our party members to be divided only for the reasons that there are two aspirants for the party ticket from the constituency,” Lanong said.
While informing that the party leadership would take some time before taking the final decision on the allocation of party ticket for Nongthymmai seat, Lanong made it clear that the party would allot the party ticket only on the basis of the candidate’s winnability factor.
It may be mentioned that the two aspirants for the UDP ticket for the Nongthymmai seat are sitting MDC Latiplang Kharkongor and Dr Jemino Mawthoh.
When asked about who was leading the race, the UDP working president said that the Nongthymmai UDP Circle has recommended Mawthoh’s name to the party leadership for allocation of the ticket.
Mawthoh holds an edge over Kharkongor since the former had garnered more votes in the 2008 Assembly polls, Lanong said, while adding that Mawthoh had garnered 2763 votes as compared to 1468 votes polled by the MDC.
It may be noted that Kharkongor has the backing of Paul Lyngdoh, the other UDP working president.