Death the absolver for UDP
SHILLONG: In death everything is absolved. This is what UDP, which partnered with NCP led by the late leader PA Sangma in 2009 to from Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) government, wants to communicate when the state bade adieu to the son of the soil Purno on Monday.
In a statement issued here on Monday, while mourning the death of the late political stalwart the UDP senior working president Bindo Lanong said, “We in the UDP have already buried the hatchet and expunged the 2009 split record and we would still prefer to forge political alliance with the NPP in times to come, for sharing the same agenda to bring development to the State.
When contacted by The Shillong Times to seek clarity on what UDP meant by ‘2009 split record’, Lanong said that it was a past chapter which he did not want to mention at this moment of sorrow, but indicated that in 2009, NCP had gone to Delhi to strike a coalition with the Congress which finally disintegrated the MPA.
However, downplaying this at this hour of grief, Lanong said that amazingly, the premature death of a sitting MP Purno Sangma, who was still riding high, has brought together all the warring groups and factions, including his hard-core rivals.
Lanong said that Purno was a dynamic leader of his own accord, who is worth a record to preserve. According to Lanong, Purno commanded the rare love and respect of the people of the State, despite having contested and won elections as a candidate from the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the NCP and NPP.
“May his death continue to guide every leader belonging to different party affiliations to renew their commitments to serve for the development of the State and restoration of peace, especially in the strife-torn Garo Hills region”, Lanong added.
The UDP leader further said that despite being the State political avatar winning all the 9 victories in the general elections to the Lok Sabha and twice to the State Assembly, spanning over 39 years from 1977, he did however, had the taste of defeat in the 2012 Presidential election. This though, was outside his domain, moreover an election confined within the electoral college of MPs and MLAs of the States”.
Lanong said that in all the quinquennia elections, Purno served not for a period of 55 years, going by the tenure, but for about 35 years only, due to dissolution and cases of deaths, which warranted bye- elections.