By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Senior UDP leader SD Khongwir has said that he is yet to receive any show-cause notice from the party seeking clarification for ‘supporting’ Congress sitting legislator Founder S Cajee instead of the party nominee Embhah Syiemlieh for Mawlai constituency for the upcoming Assembly election.
“In fact, I was caught by surprise to see the statement of the UDP working president Paul Lyngdoh that the party would issue a show-cause notice to me. Being a senior leader, I was expecting the party leaders to come and seek a clarification from me before issuing such statement to the media,” Khongwir, a former MLA from Mawlai, said while speaking to The Shillong Times here on Wednesday.
He said he was grateful to the senior party leader Bindo Mathew Lanong for coming all the way to his house to meet him and discuss the media report.
“He (Lanong) had assured that no show-cause notice would be issue to me,” Khongwir, UDP general secretary, said.
When asked if he was going to support Cajee in the upcoming Assembly election, he said that he had not extended any support to the sitting Congress legislator.
“I had, in fact, only appreciated the local MLA for doing such wonderful job for the overall development of the constituency. I was impressed by his power point representation where he (Cajee) had showed how he had implemented several; government schemes in a transparent manner,” senior UDP leader said.
This appreciation did not mean that he was going to support Cajee, Khongwir said adding that he was not going to campaign for any candidate in the upcoming Assembly election.
Stating that all the four candidates, including Syiemlieh and Cajee, who are contesting the upcoming election from Mawalai had come to meet him, he said, “I have told all of them to work hard to ensure their victory”.
When asked about his decision to support Cajee instead of the former Mawlai legislator PT Sawkmie who contested on a UDP ticket in 2008 Assembly election, he said it was totally wrong to say that he had supported the Congress nominee instead of his own party candidate.
Referring to a photograph published in some newspapers, he said the photograph was taken when he had gone to shake hands with Cajee.
“It was only a coincident since I was asked by my supporters to come out of my house when the rally of Cajee was passing through the area on the last day of the campaign. While I was meeting my supporters, Cajee came forward to shake hands with me,” he said.
According to Khongwir, the truth is that Sawkmie does not want to involve him in his election campaign.
While recalling that a meeting was to be held on January 19 2008 to kick start election campaign of Sawkmie, he said that he was supposed to get an invitation for the meeting.
‘I waited for the invitation till morning of January 19. After which, I called Sawkmie to inquire about the invitation. I was expecting Sawkmie to call me for the meeting instead he only said ‘All right next time’,” Khongwir said.
He said the main reason for Sawkmie does not want to involve him in the campaign since he does not want to dilute his popularity.
“Before the 2008 Assembly election, he (Sawkmie) was very confident to come back. Perhaps it was for this reason he does not want others to take the credit for his victory,” Khongwir said.