SHILLONG, March 20: Batting for regionalism, the United Democratic Party has egged all the regional parties on to join forces to put up a candidate for the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Stating that the UDP has been trying to unite all the regional parties, Mawthoh said: “We feel that we need to come together and join hands. This effort is continuing since 1997.”
“As leaders of regional parties, we need to join hands,” he said, adding that the UDP has a bigger responsibility as the largest and oldest regional party.
Once bitten twice shy, the UDP is also banking on its experience in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance to pitch for mutual respect amongst the coalition partners in the MDA 2.0.
“From past experience, we feel we need to respect each other more and put our heads together,” UDP general secretary, Jemino Mawthoh said on Monday.
He said this with reference to the earlier demand of the UDP to revisit Meghalaya’s border pact with Assam to resolve conflict in six sectors.
“Efforts have been made but when there were reactions from the border residents, we asked the government to revisit (the pact) as this is a long-drawn issue. We may need to revisit the areas where we feel there are problems,” he said.
Mawthoh said the UDP had put a lot of emphasis on the common minimum programme last time but it never took off. “This time, we will try to impress upon the coalition partners and the government that we need to share our concerns and have common objectives to tackle the issues that come up from time to time,” he said.
“We feel that we need to think differently this time and respect one another,” he added.
Cabinet berth-sharing among MLAs
The UDP, which has two ministers in the NPP-led MDA 2.0 Cabinet, is exploring the possibilities of splitting terms among its MLAs.
“We discussed it before joining the government. It will be in the best interest of the elected representatives to work out what is the best way forward for them,” Mawthoh said.
He said the party leadership has given its suggestions to the party MLAs on the issue.
UDP working president and West Shillong MLA, Paul Lyngdoh holds the Arts and Culture, Social Welfare, Textiles, and Tourism departments while his colleague and Khliehriat MLA, Kyrmen Shylla holds the Home (Passport), Legal Metrology, Revenue and Disaster Management, and Excise departments.
Mawthoh said it would be too premature to give the names of party MLAs who could take over from the two ministers.
During the MDA rule, the state BJP, HSPDP and NPP legislators had shared their Cabinet berths for two-and-a-half years each.
For the HSPDP, Renikton L. Tongkhar replaced Samlin Malngiang, the NPP’s Dasakhiatbha Lamare replaced Comingone Ymbon while the BJP’s Sanbor Shullai replaced party colleague AL Hek.
