SHILLONG: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Thursday indicated that there would not be any threat to the coalition even if all the four PDF MLAs withdraw support to the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA).
“We will still have 34 members supporting the MDA,” Tynsong told reporters.
Tynsong, however, said he was not asking PDF to pull out of the MDA coalition. “We leave it to their wisdom. But we cannot prevent them if they have already made up their mind to pull out of the government,” he added.
He said if PDF withdraws support to MDA, the only positive outcome of the decision will be that the Congress will get 24 MLAs.
The deputy chief minister also made it clear that the MDA government will not succumb to any pressure tactics.
Earlier on Wednesday, PDF chief P.N Syiem had warned that the party would pull out of the MDA if the four NPP MDCs withdraw support to the People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) in KHADC.
To a query, Tynsong said it is not true that NPP is trying to topple the Syiem-led Executive Committee.
Problem with CEM, not MDCs
Tynsong asserted that instead of accusing NPP of toppling his EC, the KHADC CEM should take the responsibility for the grumblings within PDA.
“Every now and then, the MDCs are unhappy with him (Syiem) and even his own party’s MDCs are not happy. The CEM should address this issue first and take care of the MDCs. Why every now and then some problem or other is coming up? Whether this problem arose on account of NPP, UDP or HSPDP? You cannot just put the blame on others,” Tynsong said.
In response to the claim of Syiem that the NPP leadership was forcing the party MDCs to sign a letter to demand convening of the special session of KHADC, Tynsong said the MDCs have their own freedom to take a decision on their own.
No verbal agreement
The deputy chief minister denied any verbal agreement with PDF to support the KHADC EC led by Syiem as claimed by him.
“As far as my knowledge goes, there is no verbal agreement,” Tynsong said.
Earlier, Syiem claimed that as per the verbal agreement, PDF will get two Cabinet berths and NPP will extend support to PDA led by him and reciprocally, the support of PDF to MDA will continue.
“We had only discussed about the ‘MDA name’ to be used for the coalition at the time of the formation of the government. We had never discussed on the issue relating to supporting the Executive Committee in the KHADC,” Tynsong added.
