SHILLONG, Jan 2: United Democratic Party (UDP) president, Metbah Lyngdoh said the attempt to unify the state’s regional forces is a continuous process.
The regional parties are eyeing unification ahead of Assembly elections, due in 2023.
“We had facilitated the process to bring the regional forces under the same banner for the past two years. We will meet to deliberate on this issue as and when required,” Lyngdoh told The Shillong Times on Sunday.
He said it is encouraging to see everyone trying to unite the regional parties.
“Unification at the moment will be a difficult task. But we can make an effort for better understanding and coordination among all regional parties,” the UDP president said.
“This effort had been made in the past so many years but it is yet to fructify,” Lyngdoh said.
The UDP and the Hill State People’s Democratic Party are the two components of Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA). PDF and Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement are yet to join this conglomerate. UDP and HSPDP have made an appeal to PDF and KHNAM from time to time to join the RDA.
The UDP is the second largest constituent of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance Government which is headed by National People’s Party that earned a national party status in 2019.
Earlier, UDP general secretary, Jemino Mawthoh had said the party that advocates the unification of regional forces wants to rekindle the fire ignited during the Hill State movement in the manner of All Party Hill Leaders’ Conference (APHCL).
“We need to rekindle and ignite that fire one more time and it will all depend on the leaders because it was not the people but some leaders, who had betrayed after winning from UDP and APHLC tickets by joining national parties,” Mawthoh said.
He said the UDP’s unity call stands to this day and that is the reason why post-2018 elections, the party had made efforts to work together with HSPDP to form the RDA.
“We would have been happier if PDF and KHNAM had joined us in RDA. We still want other regional parties to come and join this fold,” he added.
Stating that by and large the people of the state still remember APHLC and they are regional-minded, he said the same feeling needs to be rekindled.
“It is very important for the regional forces to come together. This is what most people want in Meghalaya,” he added.
