SHILLONG, Feb 6: With Assembly elections in Meghalaya just a year away, veteran political leader and former Minister, Martle N Mukhim, is cynical about the idea of complete unification of regional forces.
Mukhim’s take on the idea of unification of regional parties comes weeks after HSPDP made a clarion call for the same. The HSPDP had made the appeal in a bid to invigorate regional forces ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections in Meghalaya.
However, Mukhim has argued that the complete unification of the regional forces in Meghalaya will never become a reality.
“At the moment, all consider themselves as a leader in the regional forces. But we need to have a tallest leader both in terms of personality and intellect, whom everyone can connect with and can look upon. Until we find such a leader, it is impossible to have the unity of the regional forces,” Mukhim, who is an MDC from the HSPDP in the KHADC, said.
According to him, another reason why the dream of unifying regional parties may never be realised is because there is no law to put a check on the mechanism of floating a new political party by anybody.
Meanwhile, the veteran political leader observed that the call for unity of regional forces, especially ahead of the elections, is nothing new. “We have seen this trend in the past elections too,” Mukhim said.
He, however, recalled that the move to unite the regional forces was nearly successful in 1997 with the joint efforts of all the leaders of the three regional parties — Hills People’s Union (HPU), Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) and Public Demands Implementation Convention (PDIC).
According to him, it was agreed to dissolve the three parties HPU, HSPDP and PDIC and form the new political party, United Democratic Party (UDP), in 1997.
“But in the last minute, late Hopingstone Lyngdoh decided to back out and fight to retain the identity of the HSPDP. This was major setback since only 50 per cent of the leaders of the HSPDP joined the UDP. Late Hopingstone, along with his supporters, had also managed to retain the identity of the HSPDP,” Mukhim, who was also the president of the PDIC at a time when unification efforts were made, said.
According to him, this was the closest they came in their efforts to unite the regional forces in the state.
The HSPDP MDC also made it clear that the merger of the regional forces ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls will not happen.
“What is needed is to have a better partnership and develop a spirit of unity among the regional forces,” the veteran political leader maintained.
