The United Democratic Party (UDP) which is and has been a vital partner of the MDA Government in its first tenure (2018-23) and now in the MDA 02 is reportedly gearing itself up to raise important issues in the ongoing Assembly session. Normally it is the parties in the Opposition that prime themselves up to pillory the ruling party for its multifarious acts of omission and commission but the UDP this time has a definite grouse – and that is its being pushed into a position of insignificance in the ruling conglomerate. With 12 MLAs co-aligning with the NPP-led MDA-02 government, the UDP has only two ministers. After the NPP’s strength has gone up to 31 in the 59 member Assembly with Gambegre soon going to elect its MLA, the UDP should feel the heat. This bye-election could go either way with NPP gearing up to fire on all cylinders and ensure that Mehtab Chandee, wife of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma is elected from Gambegre. As of now the UDP is dispensable. Elections in Meghalaya are like the weather – highly unpredictable. Considering that Saleng Sangma, former Congress MLA of Gambegre was elected to the Lok Sabha it would have been safe to presume that Gambegre would continue to be a Congress bastion. But elections are more about emotions, reason, greed, aspirations all melded into a neat package and which of the factors has more influence over a voter at a particular juncture is itself an electoral calculus.
What is clear insofar as the UDP is concerned is its waning popularity among voters – its candidate having been pushed to 4rd position in the recent Lok Sabha elections which show that the Party has lost even in those seats won by its party MLAs just a year ago in 2023. In the UDP President’s constituency Mairang, the VPP MP scored 16, 981 votes while the UDP candidate got just 8124 votes. This calls for introspection as far as the UDP is concerned with its President Metbah Lyngdoh forfeiting his Speakership and not getting a ministerial berth either. And now with VPP’s rising popularity and its public agenda of ensuring clean governance a good chunk of voters are expected to shift loyalties by 2028. Of the 36 constituencies of the Shillong Lok Sabha seat the VPP candidate lost only in Nongpoh, Jirang, East Shillong and South Shillong. The next elections may seem like a long way off so for now the VPP’s goal is to win the KHADC elections and perhaps prove its point there first. With the NPP now in an absolute majority the UDP is dispensable.
In the present schemes of things where the Opposition in the Assembly is reduced to only 10 MLAs (Cong-1, VPP-4, TMC-5), the UDP is trying to fill the void there rather than be seen as a passive partner in the MDA-02 Government. This also is a clear sign to the Khasi-Jaintia legislators that they cannot aspire to govern Meghalaya if their party is restricted to the Khasi-Jaintia Hills and has no presence in the Garo Hills. The UDP is reduced to a cipher in Garo Hills and the VPP’s influence is restricted to the Khasi-Jaintia hills. In these circumstances, political maturity and the accommodative spirit continues to elude the Khasi-Jaintia people. After 12 years of state-hood they haven’t learnt the virtues of inclusivity and the spirit of accommodation.
