SHILLONG: The MDA alliance is set to witness testing times as far as selecting a common candidate for the upcoming Parliamentary Polls with one of its important ally, the United Democratic Party (UDP) deciding to stick to its decision of fielding, Jemino Mawthoh from the Shillong seat no matter whosoever’s name the coalition decides.
UDP senior leader, Allan Dkhar said that the party has already made up its mind on fielding Jemino Mawtoh as the common candidates
“We have already made up our mind and this is our candidate and whether what we are proposing falls through or not, irrespective of that we are going ahead,” Dkhar said.
When asked of if the stand of UDP even before the meeting of the Coorindation Committee would derail the process of choosing common candidate, Dkhar said, “ That is the proposal that we have put forth and whether that will derail or not is for our respective partners to examine.”
Reiterating that they have made the proposal considering their strength and which will guarantee the health of this coalition, Dkhar said, “We cannot turn back. He (Mawthoh) has put in so much effort and months have gone by.”
“If our candidate just projects his name and sits at home doing nothing he will not have an edge,” he said further adding, UDP has put up a good candidate who has the charisma, commitment and desire to be the voice in the Parliament.
He also maintained that the UDP is not being pushy as they have projected their candidate, the HSPDP have theirs and when the MDA sits and each constituent partner bring up their candidate that is the time the final assessment will be made.
To a query whether the UDP will pull out of the coalition if their proposal is not met, Dkhar said that they would cross the bridge when they get there.
On the other hand, Deputy Chief Minister and NPP leader Prestone Tynsong said that they already had preliminary discussion about common candidate but were yet to come to a final decision
Acknowledging that Mawthoh is a good candidate and a good proposal made by the MDA, Tynsong said that it was not the end as they would have to carry along everybody on this.
“We will leave it to the coordination committee to get to a solution,” Tynsong added.
