SHILLONG: The UDP has refuted the claim of some non-Congress parties that they did not receive any feelers regarding the candidate for Shillong seat saying that consultations have already started at the grass-root level. “Yes, no official communiqué has gone to the top leaders of the various parties. We have started our consultation exercise by engaging our leaders at the grass-root level,” UDP Shillong City general secretary Allantry F Dkhar said here on Wednesday. He said the party felt that it would be futile exercise to start negotiation at the top level “if the proposal is not endorsed by people at the grass-root level.”
“We would soon invite leaders of the various political parties to have deliberations on the need to have a consensus candidate,” Dkhar said. Earlier, HSPDP, KHNAM and BJP have denied receiving any such feelers from UDP seeking support for the party’s candidate for Shillong Parliamentary seat.