SHILLONG, Nov 22: The United Democratic Party (UDP) which is the second-largest constituent of the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) has maintained that the coalition does not need the BJP to run the government and the MDA partners should take a call on this as this is what the majority of people want.
“We are reiterating that we can run the government minus the BJP and this is what the majority of people want. By saying this, it does not mean that the UDP is silent to corruption and illegalities, whether we are in the government or not,” UDP general secretary, Jemino Mawthoh said today while reacting to a query on whether they can manage the coalition without BJP.
“Let the NPP and the coalition partners take a call on this. No one or no party is indispensable,” he added.
Stating that this decision should have been taken right at the beginning, Mawthoh recalled, “Personally I had expressed my reservation of aligning with the BJP because of issues like CAB (now CAA) and so on. Although I secured 34% vote share in the Lok Sabha elections which is much more than what Vincent Pala got in 2014, we had to concede defeat because of the BJP tag”.
“If not for the BJP tag and issues like CAB, I would have won convincingly,” he added.
He said that the idea of regional parties like UDP which stands for the rights of ethnic groups and minorities and believes in secular nature of politics is diametrically opposite to the ideologies of the national party (BJP).
On the statement of Rajya Sabha MP and NPP state president, WR Kharlukhi that the BJP will not be called for the MDA coordination committee meeting, Mawthoh said, “His statement may be personal since his party hasn’t commented as yet.”
Mawthoh also claimed that that he was not aware if the BJP was “conniving” with any other political force to attack the state government.
It may be mentioned that the UDP has, time and again, attempted to mend the strained relationship between the coalition partners and had also requested the State BJP to wait for the GHADC audit report ordered by the state government before pushing for a CBI probe.
The UDP had also maintained that they are strictly against corruption but the issues should be raised in the right manner and at the right forum.