BJP names Shibun Lyngdoh for Shillong
SHILLONG: UDP is in talks with NDA for a possible post-poll alliance, the Shillong Lok Sabha candidate of the former Paul Lyngdoh confirmed on Tuesday. “There are talks with the NDA,” Lyngdoh said, when asked whom he would support if he won.
After filing his nomination papers on Tuesday before returning officer Sanjay Goyal, the UDP candidate said he was confident of winning. “The decline of Congress in many of the states would also be replicated in Meghalaya,” Lyngdoh said.
“I hope this on-going trend which points to the decline in the popularity of the Congress would go in my favour,” he said adding that the Congress was facing the worst defeat in the Lok Sabha polls ever since Independence.
As a nominee from a regional party, the UDP candidate hoped that the people would take a wise decision to vote in his favour. “We are confident that the people will use their intelligence and be observant,” the UDP candidate said. Lyngdoh also said that assessment done after the Assembly elections proved that the UDP was the only party that could take on the Congress.
While highlighting on the need to have an assertive voice in the Lok Sabha, he said he would be able to articulate and champion the cause of the indigenous people of Meghalaya.
Meanwhile, BJP has decided to field Shibun Lyngdoh. The approval came from the BJP’s national president Rajnath Singh.
Besides two Lyngdohs, the candidates who are in the fray for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat are sitting MP and Congress candidate Vincent H Pala, Common People’s Front (CPF) nominee Rev PBM Basaiawmoit who is supported by the HSPDP and KHNAM and Aam Admi Party (AAP) candidate Amerington Kharshiing, who is a retired IFS officer. Meghalaya will go for polls on April 9. The last date for filing of nomination is on March 22, the last date of withdrawal being March 26.