By Our Reporter
Shillong, Dec 1: The decision of the NPP, the leading partner in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance coalition, to announce its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections seems to have upset its partner UDP.
After having fought the 2019 Lok Sabha election together when the NPP supported the candidate proposed by the UDP (Jemino Mawthoh), the two parties have now decided to “part ways” for next year’s polls.
UDP working president, Paul Lyngdoh stated on Friday that since NPP has already chosen its candidate for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat, so the issue of a common candidate does not exist.
NPP state president, Prestone Tynsong had also stated that since no such agreement (common candidate) has been discussed, the NPP is running independently this time around, in contrast to 2019 when they decided on a joint candidate with coalition partner, the UDP.
In response to the question of whether Robertjune Kharjahrin, the former president of the HYC, is the front-runner for the UDP ticket from Shillong, Lyngdoh stated that the former is one of the candidates to have indicated interest in running for the Shillong parliamentary seat.
“There are three to four candidates vying for the ticket, and I believe the decision will be made in a few weeks,” he continued.
He reported that the UDP’s state election committee has already held a few meetings and that preparations for the ADC elections are also concurrently under way.
“We should have a preliminary list of candidates ready at the very least by the end of January,” he added.
