SHILLONG: The two elected representatives of HSPDP on Monday ignored party president Ardent Basaiawmoit’s objection to Conrad Sangma’s election as chief minister and assured their support to the coalition.
UDP working president Bindo Lanong said on Monday the two MLAs, Samlin Malngiang and Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar, formed the parliamentary party of HSPDP and later extended support in writing to the coalition led by Conrad.
“The duo also met Donkupar Roy at his residence in presence of Conrad. They felt that the aspirations of people should be respected,” the senior UDP leader said.
Lanong, who is also an advocate, added that a party cannot stand against the wish of the parliamentary party because under the tenth Schedule, there is no bar on MLAs to join any coalition and “they did it with the spirit of pre-poll alliance”.
Earlier, Basaiawmoit had expressed his unhappiness with the UDP for pitching for Conrad Sangma as the next chief minister sans the due process of consultation.
Speaking to the media after an emergency meeting of the HSPDP’s central executive committee, the HSPDP president made it clear that it was not the job of the UDP to decide as to who would be the chief minister of the state.
“We feel embarrassed as we were not consulted while the decision was taken to choose the chief minister of the state,” said Basaiawmoit.
Moreover, the HSPDP is averse to the idea of including the BJP in the coalition with the party president asserting that his party may not be a part of the next government, opposed as it is to the BJP being a part of the alliance.
“We don’t want to betray the people of the state as we had expressed our reservations against the BJP,” Basaiawmoit said on Monday.
HSPDP has already conveyed its stand to the UDP leadership in this regard.
Basaiawmoit also said that regional forces in Meghalaya, minus the Congress and BJP, can easily form a government as they have the required numbers, adding that the party would welcome an alliance between the NPP, UDP, HSPDP and PDF.
Asked about the two HSPDP MLAs who were earlier paraded by Conrad before the governor, Basaiawmoit said the two MLAs were made to sign the letter of support under the perception that the decision of forming an NPP-BJP-HSPSDP- UDP-PDF alliance was taken between the leaderships of the HSPDP and UDP which, however, was not the case.
“We did not expect that the UDP would propose the name of Conrad Sangma. It is not the job of the UDP to advise NPP on the matter and we would love to have an elected MLA from the NPP becoming the chief minister,” Ardent told reporters.
Maintaining he has nothing against Conrad, Ardent said, “We would like to see an elected NPP MLA as the chief minister especially when the party itself had announced the name of Prestone Tynsong earlier.”
“It will be a betrayal to the people of Meghalaya if Tynsong is not made CM because the NPP had openly declared him as the CM candidate, based on which Tynsong left the Congress,” he said.
The party president made it clear that the HSPDP would not participate in the swearing-in ceremony scheduled to be held on Tuesday, adding that he hoped the two HSPDP MLAs would not attend the ceremony.
