NONGSTOIN: All is not well within the HSPDP, the oldest regional party in the State. The face-off between party chief Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit and Nongstoin MDC L.G. Nongsiej seems to blow out of proportions with a sizeable number of party supporters backing the latter while accusing the former of washing dirty linen in public.
The spat between Basaiawmoit and Nongsiej came to the fore during the declaration of the result of the Nongstoin by poll when the party chief publicly termed Nongsiej a traitor and announced that he was no longer a member of the HSPDP as he had not supported party candidate Diosstarness Jyndiang in the by election.
Nongsiej confided to The Shillong Times that he had no intention of turning his back on his own party and recalled that after the announcement of the name of the candidate he had attended and spoke at several public meeting to drum up support for Jyndiang.
“Ardent might be upset over my absence in some meetings but my daughter was admitted at the hospital and I had to attend to her,” Nongsiej clarified.
The MDC however, lamented that the ‘self-styled party president’ had insulted and mocked him in public which has affected him and his family.
To a query on whether he was still in the HSPDP, Nongsiej said he had not received any official letter but was quick to mention that no letter was needed since the president had already kicked him out of the party in public.
Incidentally, the development has not gone down well with the primary units of the HSPDP in Nongstoin who have accused the party president of highhandedness and have threatened to leave the party if Ardent did not apologize to Nongsiej for his ‘mistake’.
Members of the primary units of the party have also claimed that Ardent lacked the capacity to lead the party since as a leader he should have tabled his grievances against Nongsiej during the executive meeting and not in public.
