By Our Reporter
Shillong: The United Democratic Party (UDP) on Thursday rejected a fresh appeal from Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma seeking support for UPA’s Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee.
Reacting to Dr Sangma’s appeal to the party to review their stand on supporting Opposition candidate Purno A Sangma, UDP president Dr Donkupar Roy, on Thursday, maintained that there is no question of reviewing the decision.
“The decision to support PA Sangma is not the decision of only the party MLAs but it is the view of majority of the party workers. We cannot go against the sentiments of our party workers,” Dr Roy stated.
When asked if the UDP would be sending a delegation to meet Mukherjee who would be visiting the region on Friday as requested by the Chief Minister, Dr Roy said that he cannot go to Guwahati since he is preoccupied.
“I do not think any of our members would go to meet Mukherjee,” he added.
Meanwhile, UDP working president Paul Lyngdoh also said that the party was firm in its decision to support PA Sangma.
When pointed out that the UDP was a part of the MUA coalition government and it was expected of them to support Mukherjee for the President’s post, Lyngdoh said the decision to project Mukherjee as the candidate was the decision of the Congress party and not the MUA.
“The MUA has never met to discuss the Presidential election so how can the Congress expect us to support Mukherjee,” he stated.
Earlier, the Chief Minister had informed that he had personally spoken to the UDP president requesting him to have a fresh look at their decision to support Purno Sangma.
“Since we are in a coalition I had told him (Dr Roy) that it is expected that we have a common decision in the MUA,” the Chief Minister said, while adding, that he had also requested the UDP to send their members to meet Mukherjee during his visit to the region on Friday.
Dr Sangma also informed that the MUA would meet on July 12 to decide on the issue.
