SHILLONG, March 6: The second largest party, UDP, appears to be in double whammy.
From failing to lead an alternative government, now it has to remain content with just two cabinet berths with no power to bargain.
Sources said, after failing to form an alternative government comprising all regional parties, the UDP had also offered to form a government with the NPP and another party, presumably the BJP. This plan of leaving out fringe parties like HSPDP and PDF, also fell flat.
The UDP now has Hobson’s choice of settling for two cabinet berths for all 11 members.
The party’s nominees are West Shillong MLA Paul Lyngdoh and Khliehriat MLA Kyrmen Shylla.
This has put UDP president Metbah Lyngdoh without any assignment for now. According to sources the former Assembly Speaker’s seat is likely to go to NPP’s North Tura MLA, Thomas A Sangma since NPP wants to be in complete control.
It was also learnt that the PDF has suffered because it adopted a dilly-dally tactic, seemingly unsure of whether or not the regional forces would be able to cobble up the numbers.
However, when the UDP offered its support to Conrad on Sunday, the PDF decided to follow suit.
The CM-designate on Monday revealed that it was he who had first approached UDP and PDF to lend support to the alliance. He explained that NPP, UDP, and PDF had worked together in the past through thick and thin; for this reason, he wanted everyone to be together again.
When asked why he took the support of UDP and PDF when his alliance already had strength of 32 MLAs, Sangma said that it was a matter of “principle” and he does not like to simply “use and throw” some parties just because NPP has the numbers.
UDP president Metbah Lyngdoh on Monday said it was sad that his party has been blamed for staging a political drama.
“I am not here as the president of the party to create any drama to fool the people. I will never do that in the future also. This is very clear from my side,” he said while reacting to the remarks made by VPP president, Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit.
Lyngdoh said the UDP was profound in its effort to have a government led by the regional forces. He insisted they would have gone ahead to stake claim since the whole idea to convene the meeting was to let the regional parties take the lead.
“We were supposed to have a second meeting to decide on the overall arrangement. But we could not because three MLAs – two of the HSPDP and one independent – disappeared,” he said.
He further said the president of one of the political parties assured that the two MLAs who deserted the group would be back.
“But this never happened. We were finally reduced to 27 MLAs after the three had gone to support the NPP-led coalition,” Lyngdoh said, pointing out that it would have been impossible to stake claim with 27 when the other camp had 32 MLAs.
Moreover, he said the people’s mandate indicated they wanted the UDP, especially from the Khasi-Jaintia region to lead the government.
“We attempted on that very day to lead the government but did not have the numbers,” he said.
Stating that the regional parties had only 19 MLAs, he said no formation would have materialised without the support of the national parties such as Congress and Trinamool Congress.
“We then received a message from another group requesting the UDP to be part of the government. We decided to support the NPP-led alliance after we found out we do not have adequate numbers. We did it for the sake of stability,” Lyngdoh said.
Asserting that the party has not made any demand for the post of Deputy CM, he said there should be mutual understanding regarding a coalition government.
