SHILLONG: The chairman of the Meghalaya State Planning Board (MSPB) Lambor Malngiang said that the common candidate contesting Lok Sabha elections from Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) should not contest with the tag of the party but as a candidate of the alliance.
Talking to media persons here on Friday, Malngiang said that the alliance could consider of adopting a similar policy during the time of the formation of the Regional People’s Alliance (RPA).
“We may recall during the 2004 Lok Sabha poll, when Dr S Loniak Marbaniang had contested as the candidate of the RPA despite being a member of the HSPDP,” , adding Dr Marbaniang was allotted a separate symbol since he was contesting as a candidate of the RPA.
Malngiang who is the one of the independent MLAs supporting the NPP-led MDA coalition government in the State said that the formation of the RPA was a unique one since the regional parties at the time was supporting the Congress-led Government and they decided to come together to fight the Lok Sabha polls
However, the attempt to set up the RPA candidate did not fructify as Dr Marbaniang was defeated.
The MSPB chairman, however, feels that this time round the alliance has an upper hand since they have the support of a total number of 39 MLAs.
“We can definitely win both Shillong and Tura seats if we are projecting as the MDA candidate not by allowing an individual party to contest in the name of ‘common candidate’ of an alliance,” Malngiang said.
It may be mentioned that the ruling coalition in Meghalaya includes the National People’s Party (NPP) with the largest number of 20 MLAs. The UDP comes next with 9 MLAs, People’s Democratic Front 4, BJP and Hill State People’s Democratic Party 2 each and one NCP legislator.
