By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, July 4: The United Democratic Party on Thursday claimed that the Hill State People’s Democratic Party has expressed its desire to pull out of the Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA).
HSPDP president KP Pangniang, however, denied that the party is pulling out of the RDA.
“We will remain with the RDA. There is no question of coming out of the alliance with the UDP,” Pangniang said, while making it clear that his party has only decided to contest the upcoming district council elections on its own.
The HSPDP president asserted that their decision to contest the district council polls on their own has no connection with the RDA.
Earlier, confirming the HSPDP’s exit from the RDA, Cabinet Minister and UDP working president, Paul Lyngdoh said the HSPDP has verbally communicated their unwillingness to continue with the RDA.
The RDA is an alliance forged between the HSPDP and the UDP and the two parties have been using this platform to field common candidate and also candidates with understanding in the various constituencies.
“There are multiple factors for the failure of the RDA candidate (Robertjune Kharjahrin) in the Lok Sabha poll which is why even the HSPDP has decided to pull out of the RDA,” Lyngdoh said.
He also said that the two parties will meet formally and settle all the issues once and for all.
Asked if this decision of the HSPDP will impact the UDP negatively, he said, “You might say so. We might think it is better we work separately since we could not secure 5 per cent of the total vote share this time. Probably if we would have contested alone we could have crossed that.”
Stating that there were a lot of factors leading to the RDA candidate’s loss in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha poll, Lyngdoh said, “These are factors that you will have to take into account. A lot of factors were at work and one of them was also the fact that we could not galvanise our cadres in a manner that we should have done and the RDA candidate’s name was declared at the eleventh hour, almost a year after the VPP candidate (Ricky AJ Syngkon) started his tour of the various constituencies.”
When pointed out that the UDP had lost despite having 12 MLAs and many MDCs, Lyngdoh said, “It is not just UDP who had lost in all the 12 seats but all political parties throughout the 36 constituencies. The VPP managed to be number one in 34 of the 36 Assembly segments in Khasi-Jaintia Hills.”
