SHILLONG: The United Democratic Party (UDP) has defended the move of the Opposition to withdraw the no-confidence motion against the State government in the recently concluded autumn session of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.
Speaking to media persons here in the city on Thursday, UDP working president Bindo M Lanong said he would have done the same since the moving of the no-confidence and toppling the government depends on numerical strength which the opposition does not have.
While maintaining that the intention of moving the no-confidence motion against the government was not to topple the government but to expose it on all fronts, Lanong said the no-trust motion brought a lot of discredit to the government and UDP would continue to do that in future.
Reacting to a query if members of the Treasury might have supported the no-confidence motion, he said they could not stand against the government both inside and outside the House since the government had issued a whip and any member supporting the motion would have been disqualified.
The Opposition had jointly moved a no-confidence motion against the government in the recently concluded autumn session and after a six-hour marathon debate, the Opposition withdrew the motion after Chief Minister Mukul Sangma requested the Opposition to withdrew it.
The Opposition had maintained from the beginning that the idea behind bringing the motion was not to topple the government but to get its attention to the important issues in the State.
