By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Nov 20: Over two months have passed since the United Democratic Party’s leadership took the decision to drop Paul Lyngdoh and Kyrmen Shylla from the Meghalaya Cabinet as part of a scheduled mid-term reshuffle, but the setback is yet to sink in for the former.
The move by UDP was primarily driven by the desire to bring party president Metbah Lyngdoh and Lahkmen Rymbui into the cabinet.
While some believed there was a pre-agreed power-sharing formula, Paul Lyngdoh and Kyrmen Shylla both denied any explicit written or verbal agreement for a rotational tenure, suggesting that the suddenness of the decision felt “unceremonious”.
Paul notably skipped the swearing-in ceremony of the new ministers on September 16, indicating his surprise and disappointment.
Having earlier described the move as a setback, Paul on Thursday admitted that he had nothing personal against his party, but made it clear that it was more a matter of ethics.
Elaborating further, he recalled that four days before the reshuffle, the party had celebrated its foundation day and the party president (Metbah Lyngdoh) had gone on record, stating in the media that the UDP have no plans of a reshuffle of its cabinet berths.
Lyngdoh recalled that a month prior to the reshuffle, some leaders in the party had raised the issue as it was imminent, considering that the NPP-led MDA 2.0 coalition had reached its half-way mark.
Even then, the party president who was chairing the CEC meeting had maintained that there was no such intention of a reshuffle, Paul recalled.
Asked if he was contemplating to join the NPP before the 2028 Assembly polls, Lyngdoh refused to comment.
