SHILLONG: Taking exception to the HSPDP and KHNAM assessments that their party candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, Paul Lyngdoh, would not fare well in the polls, the UDP on Monday asked the two regional parties to justify their stand.
The party also slammed the HSPDP and KHNAM for allegedly trying to make a scapegoat out of the UDP which is being termed responsible for the regional parties’ failure to put up a common candidate.
“We would like to know from the two parties on what basis they have come to the conclusion that Lyngdoh is not going to win. They have to prove their point,” UDP general secretary Allantry F Dkhar told newsmen here on Monday adding that it was misleading to make such claims without proper assessment.
Dkhar added that to conduct such an assessment, even the smallest survey would at least take 10-15 days while engaging at least 200 people to complete it.
On the regional parties’ failure to put up a common candidate Dkhar claimed that there was an agreement between the non-Congress forces including the HSPDP and the KHNAM that they will convince Rev. PBM Basaiawmoit not to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls even as they decided that efforts would be made to explore on the possibilities of fielding a common candidate.
“Both the parties failed to convince Basaiawmoit who has made his stand clear that he would go ahead and contest the elections,” the UDP general secretary said.
According to Dkhar, the steering committee constituted by the UDP was an offshoot of the decision of the party’s state election committee to put up a candidate for the Lok Sabha polls after realizing that the other two parties do not intend to put up any candidate.
“We felt it necessary to take the decision of the party to the steering committee on the need to mobilize support for the party’s candidate,” the UDP general secretary said, adding, “To say that the party has failed to inform them is not true.”
Earlier, the HSPDP and KHNAM, which are the coalition partners of UDP under the All Regional Parties Alliance (ARPA) in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, turned down the UDP’s offer to support its candidate and decided to support the Common People Front (CPF)’s Rev. PBM Basaiawmoit in the Lok Sabha polls from Shillong Parliamentary seat.
On the recent comment made on the party’s performance, Dkhar said, “We want to remind the HSPDP and KHNAM that the Lok Sabha election does not cover only areas under KHADC.”
He further claimed that the UDP has a larger vote share than the HSPDP and the KHNAM in the 2009 and 2014 district council elections besides the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
Recalling the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Dkhar said that the regional parties then under the banner of Regional Parties Alliance (RPA) had decided to field a common candidate but the strategy failed.
On the HSPDP and KHNAM’s common candidate (Basaiawmoit), he said “Basaiawmoit is just an Independent candidate and we want to remind the two parties that this election is of parliamentary level and not of the district level.
Dkhar, however, said that the move taken by the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections will in no way affect the relationship of the three regional parties under the ARPA in KHADC.
“We will ensure that the ARPA completes its full five-year term,” he said.