SHILLONG: UDP president Donkupar Roy has assured that there would not be any betrayal on the part of the UDP and the party wanted the MDA coalition to complete its full term.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Wednesday, Roy said there should not be any cause for mistrust following the win of UDP candidate Pius Marwein, who defeated the five-time MLA and NPP candidate MM Danggo.
“The MDA coalition government will continue and there should not be any difficulty,” he said.
To a question, Roy said since there was no pre-poll alliance with NPP before the Assembly polls, UDP was free to contest the by-poll.
“We have only post-poll alliance and there should not be any reason for misunderstanding on UDP contesting the Ranikor by-poll,” he said.
UDP has eight MLAs, including the associate member (SK Sunn) and with the pre-poll alliance partner HSPDP, the number will be 10.
The Congress and NPP have 20 MLAs each and the third largest party, UDP is the deciding factor for any government formation.
However, the UDP chief asserted that the party was committed to the MDA coalition.
When asked about the collapse of the previous NCP-UDP-led government in 2009 resulting in the formation of a Congress-led government, the UDP leader, who was the chief minister then, said. “At that time, Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre and the situation is different now since the NDA is in power at the Centre.”
To a question on what would be the fate of MDA in the state if the BJP-led NDA is out of power in 2019, Roy said,” Of course there are a lot of questions being asked about the scenario after the Lok Sabha polls. In that context, we cannot say anything about it now.”
Original NPP
supported UDP
Roy said on Wednesday that UDP candidate Pius Marwein got the support from the original NPP leaders in Ranikor, who did not support Danggo.
Besides, a section of NPP and BJP also supported Marwein.
Donkupar Massar, who had unsuccessfully contested from NPP in the February 27 Assembly polls and BJP candidate Pelcy Snaitang had supported the UDP candidate.
According to the UDP chief, the main reason for the defeat of Danggo is that people did not like defection.
“Danggo was elected on a Congress ticket only a few months ago before joining NPP and this was not liked by the people of Ranikor,” Roy said.
Anti-incumbency and backwardness of Ranikor may be other factors, he added.
