SHILLONG: The National People’s Party (NPP) has asserted that though the party wants to contest the Lok Sabha election from many seats in the region it is open to suggestions from its allies.
Kharlukhi’s remark comes on the day when UDP president Donkupar Roy said the party did not set any condition to its allies to field a “UDP-sponsored candidate” from the Shillong Parliamentary seat.
“As a party, we would only want that the NPP should be allowed to contest from Tura and UDP from Shillong,” Roy told reporters on Friday.
The NPP chief said at a separate press conference that the party was yet to discuss the option to have a common candidate of the alliance as proposed by the UDP.
“As NPP, we want to contest elections not only from Shillong and the region but if need arises, we are open to the idea of adjustments,” he said, adding, “Our mind is to defeat Congress in the Lok Sabha though they are at their weakest point.”
The UDP is exploring the possibilities to have common candidates from both Tura and Shillong. Roy said the party would like to propose a candidate who would be acceptable to all alliance partners.
Replying to a query, he said the issue was yet to be taken up with the allies. “But there are discussions among leaders of the allies in the MDA. All the leaders agree to the proposal on the need to have a common candidate,” the UDP president added.
He said the only question which they need to resolve was from which party the common candidate would be.
When asked what would be the party’s stand if the allies disagree with the UDP on contesting from Shillong, Roy said the party always hopes for the best.
Meanwhile, Kharlukhi said there was no contact with former Congress leader DD Lapang on joining the NPP.
Reacting to Leader of the Opposition Mukul Sangma’s accusation that MDA “is a failed government”, he said the NPP is in power for six months while Sangma was in power for eight years “but he is not seeing his own failure”.
“The Meghalaya (Basin) Development Programme is a leaked basin as it failed to take care of the state while there was ban on fishes,” he added.
