SHILLONG: The plan of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) to field a common candidate from both Shillong and Tura Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming general election has slim chances of getting materialise given that tough different political parties supporting the alliance are talking about fielding a common candidate, they are yet sit down to officially decide a common candidate.
The UDP has gone ahead by declaring its former MLA, Jemino Mawhtoh as the common candidate and he has even started his campaigning for the same.
The selection of the common candidate is supposed to be decided in the meeting of the coordination committee of the alliance which is due for some quite some time now and the alliance partners will now meet only in the next year.
Speaking to The Shillong Times here on Friday, UDP candidate, Jemino Mawthoh who had just finished his campaign in Umroi on Friday expressed confidence that the partners of the alliance would be able to arrive at a consensus for him to be the common candidate.
“ I can say that we have a very good coordination committee and our party will seek the support of all partners,” he said while expressing confidence that there are positive indications from the public with regards to him contesting the Lok Sabha polls.
When asked if it would be a challenge for him to take on the two term the sitting MP,Vincent Pala, Mawthoh said that he cannot comment anything on the performance of the MP and he leaves it to the wisdom of the people to make their decision.
While the alliance is yet to arrive a consensus, the BJP is unsure if it would support the common candidate or it would field its own candidate from both the constituencies.
BJP leader, AL Hek reiterated as a national party, BJP should contest the elections from both seats but added that a final call on the matter would be taken by the party leadership.
He also said that the party was identifying the probable candidates who can be fielded by the party in the elections.
Earlier, even NPP had expressed confidence that the alliance would be able to arrive at an agreement on fielding common candidates.
On the other hand, Congress party is most likely to field its sitting MP Vincent Pala from Shillong constituency while a search panel is on job to identify a probable candidate from Tura constituency.