By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, July 6: The HSPDP will hold a meeting shortly to discuss the confusion that surrounds their claimed “exit” from the Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA). The party will follow this up with a meeting with the UDP leadership.
“It is very important to clear the confusion. No doubt we are together in the alliance but it is always better to make things crystal clear,” HSPDP general secretary, Panbor Ryntathiang said on Saturday.
According to him it is very important for the party to first discuss things among themselves before taking it up with the UDP.
He said it was necessary to discuss the matter with the UDP since several confusing statements have been made over the last few days and the HSPDP deems it necessary to chalk out a clear roadmap for the RDA.
The RDA is an alliance forged between the HSPDP and the UDP. The two have been using this platform to field common candidate and also candidates with understanding in various constituencies.
Most leaders of the UDP have expressed surprise over party working president Paul Lyngdoh’s claims that the Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) has expressed its desire to pull out of the RDA.
A senior UDP leader on Friday told The Shillong Times requesting anonymity that there was no such communication from the HSPDP leadership, either verbally or in writing.
He said Lyngdoh must have made an assumption after the HSPDP had recently declared that it was planning to contest the district council elections on its own.
“The RDA is very much intact. Even HSPDP president KP Pangniang has rubbished this claim,” the UDP leader said.
He, however, admitted that Lyngdoh’s statement has created some confusion in the leaderships of the two parties.
Earlier, Pangniang asserted that the HSPDP will remain with the RDA.
“There is no question of coming out of the alliance with the UDP,” he had stated.
It may be recalled that the UDP working president had claimed that there are multiple factors for the failure of the RDA candidate (Robertjune Kharjahrin) in the Lok Sabha polls and which is why, the HSPDP has decided to pull out of the RDA.
He also said that the two parties will meet formally and settle all the issues once and for all.
Asked if this decision of the HSPDP will impact the UDP negatively, he said, “You might say so. We might think it is better to work separately since we could not secure 5 per cent of the total vote share this time. Probably, if we would have contested alone, we could have crossed that.”
