Khongwir calls for trust among regional parties

SHILLONG: Veteran political leader and former deputy chief minister S.D Khongwir on Wednesday called for understanding between regional parties to ensure victory in the 2018 Assembly polls.
“Regional parties have to come together, as none of the regional parties would be able to form a government on its own,” he said on Wednesday.
He referred to different regional parties claiming majority of seats in the next election which, according to him, will only bring about a fractured mandate without any pre-poll arrangement.
According to Khongwir, there should be a pre-poll alliance by like-minded parties with mutual trust and responsibility which will only ensure victory.
Khongwir is the second leader in the State who is advocating the need to have trust among the regional parties after another leader, R.G Lyngdoh, stressed on the need for sacrifice among the like-minded political parties in the State to take on the principal rival Congress.
To a question on the reluctance of HSPDP to align with the regional forces, Khongwir said that in the past too when HPU was formed, HSPDP kept aloof.
“I was the general secretary of HSPDP for 14 years with Hopingstone Lyngdoh as president. In 1984-85, we decided to form HPU after dissolving HSPDP. Though there was initial agreement, there was change of mind on the part of the party president,” Khongwir said.