UDP for ‘consensus’ candidate in Shillong
LS polls
SHILLONG: The UDP will hold consultations with all like-minded parties before announcing its candidate for the Shillong Parliamentary seat even as the party has decided to back NPP candidate in Tura seat.
Making this announcement here after UDP’s State Election Committee meeting on Wednesday, the party working president Paul Lyngdoh said “We have decided to hold consultations with BJP, KHNAM and NPP before announcing party candidate for the Shillong Parliamentary seat.”
“We have also decided to support the NPP candidate for the Tura seat,” he said.
The party would request HSPDP to reconsider its decision of extending support the independent candidate Rev PBM Basaiawmoit.
Besides HSPDP, KHNAM has also decided to back Rev Basaiawmoit.
“We are seeking support of all the non-Congress forces to field a ‘consensus candidate’ to take on Congress. The party candidate would have a strong political lobby to raise issue concerning the State since it is part and parcel of the North East Regional Political Front (NERPF) which is likely to have a pre-poll alliance with NDA at the national level,” Lyngdoh said.
He said that NERPF would be playing an important role in the national political arena since there are indications that they would be a hung Parliament after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
While questioning the projection of Rev Basaiawmoit as the candidate of the People Candidate Forum (PCF), he said that the party is not aware of any exercise in which the traditional heads, academicians and prominent citizens were taken into confidence before deciding on the people’s candidate.
“I do not think that a meeting of 200 to 300 people has got a mandate to declare the people’s candidates in a constituency which has over 6 lakh voters,” UDP working president said.
On seeking support from BJP, which is considered as a ‘communal force’, he said “The branding of BJP as a communal party is no longer an issue. We would see there are many Christian States like Goa and Nagaland where the BJP is in power,” Lyngdoh said.
Autonomous District Council elections: Lyngdoh, however, informed that the party has decided to assign the District Committee to select candidates for the upcoming district council elections.
“The District Committee has also been asked to re-organise the party in view of the council election,” UDP working president said.
He also informed that the exercise to select the candidates in some of the constituencies has already begun.