SHILLONG: The NPP has made it clear that there is no threat to the MDA government over the stand of the coalition partners regarding the Lok Sabha polls.
The UDP and the BJP are keen to field candidates for the Lok Sabha polls separately, whereas the NPP is yet to reveal its plan.
“We want a common candidate for the twin seats – Shillong and Tura – but we cannot prevent the coalition partners from putting up candidates and this is the beauty of the MDA coalition”, NPP state president WR Kharlukhi said on Wednesday.
He said the issue of common candidate will have to be discussed in the MDA forum.
The NPP also downplayed the stand of UDP hinting instability of the MDA government if there is no consensus among the coalition partners on the issue of common candidate.
UDP was the first party to propose the need to have a common candidate for the Shillong seat for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Deputy Chief Minister and NPP leader Prestone Tynsong said that he has no comments on the media reports as the party is yet to have a meeting.
On the other hand, Kharlukhi downplayed the whole issue saying there is no such threat from its coalition partner.
“We will work out the Shillong seat for the Lok Sabha elections,” Kharlukhi said, while maintaining that there is no confusion between the two major partners of the MDA.
Kharlukhi also said that he is continuously in touch with the top leadership of UDP and added that the UDP earlier too had made it clear that the party will support the alliance till the end of the term.
