UDP blames Cong’s strategy of fear-mongering for defeat

SHILLONG: The United Democratic Party (UDP) which lost the Lok Sabha elections from Shillong despite fielding Jemino Mawthoh as the common candidate, has blamed the opposition Congress’s strategy of fear-mongering as the main factor behind its defeat.
It may be mentioned that Jemino Mawthoh of the UDP lost the polls to sitting Congress MP Vincent H Pala by a huge margin of 1.52 lakh votes.
Speaking to reporters here, UDP vice president Allantry F Dkhar said that the party welcomed the mandate given by the people even as he added that though nearly 2.70 lakh people voted in favour of UDP, a majority of voters were swayed due to fear mongering by the Congress especially with regards to the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
“People were made to believe that the UDP is working together with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is not at all true,” Dkhar said.
“In fact, it was the two MLAs of the BJP who have decided to extend their support to the MDA government but the UDP does not have any political relations with the saffron party,” Dkhar added.
The UDP leader lamented the fact that people voted for Congress which managed to win only 52 seats and said that it is a big loss to the state.
He also admitted that the attempt by the regional forces to oust the Congress from the Shillong seat has failed again.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the regional political parties had unanimously supported S Loniak Marbaniang as the candidate of the Regional People’s Alliance (RPA) from the Shillong parliamentary seat.
Marbaniang, however, was defeated by Congress veteran leader (L) PR Kyndiah who secured 1,90,058 votes while the RPA could only manage 1,19,162 votes.
Dkhar also denied the allegation that some of the MDA partners were supporting the sitting MP.
According to him, the UDP recognises the efforts put out by all MDA partners during the election campaigning for the party candidate.
Mawthoh, who was backed by the regional political parties supporting the MDA government, polled only 2,67,093 votes.