Prime Minister Modi has cautioned his ministers to be economical with abuses and avoid controversial speeches but to speak of the schemes instead during the election campaign. The United Democratic Party (UDP) has also decided to toe this line and avoid mudslinging during the election campaign. The fact is that the UDP is a junior coalition partner of the MDA-2 government and the NPP which is the leading partner in the coalition does not really need the UDP to be able to form a stable government with partners like the HSPDP already supporting it and the PDF having merged with it. In fact it would have jeopardised the chances of the UDP to continue in the government. In any case the public too are not foolish to get carried away by pre-election rhetoric of any party. Both the NPP and the UDP would have to have a solid set of agenda to convince voters why the present Congress MP, Vincent Pala should be voted out.
In other words both the UDP and NPP have to be thinking on how to campaign against the Congress Party rather than against each other. Both the above parties are also aligned with the BJP at the Centre and this cannot be lost sight of. The Congress will tear them apart on this single agenda as a claimant to the upholder of secularism and democratic tenets. In light of what has been happening in the Assam-Meghalaya border where schools have been told to take down all Christian religious symbols and the attack on the nun from Garo Hills by radical Hindu groups from Assam, the Congress would now have enough grist for its mill even as the NPP and UDP would have to defend why they are aligned with a party that is anti-minority; in this case anti-Christian. The BJP is yet to announce its candidate but it is expected that it would set up a lady advocate as its candidate from Shillong, although chances of the BJP winning the Lok Sabha seats are slim in Meghalaya which has only two MLAs. There is the VPP candidate also to contend with.
The NPP and UDP will have a hard time convincing people why they should vote for its candidates and why the two parties could not come to a pre-election agreement to field a common candidate. That would have consolidated the votes and considering that the two parties are coalition partners in the Government it was the natural thing to do. It also means that there was no consultation between the MDA partners before setting up candidates. What were the points on which the UDP had aligned with the NPP to form the government other than the quest to be on the side of power? Does this not show up the shallowness of the UDP here?
