Shillong: Two coalition partners of the National People’s Party (NPP)-led government in Meghalaya have come together to prepare for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and to nsure that they put up a joint candidate from Shillong parliamentary constituency.
The two political parties – United Democratic Party (UDP) and Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) – have revived their alliance known as the Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA) that they had been together in 2019 during the Lok Sabha elections.
In 2019, the RDA had fielded Jemino Mawthoh of the UDP as the candidate who unsuccessfully contested from the Shillong parliamentary constituency.
On Tuesday, the two parties held a joint meeting at the UDP office and revived the RDA with new office bearers.
UDP President Metbah Lyngdoh is the chairman of the RDA while HSPDP leader, Martle N Mukhim is the co-chairman, besides other members.
The RDA will also have six members from the UDP and five members from the HSPDP.
“We have decided to reconstitute the RDA with new office bearers and we had a good and cordial meeting between the two parties,” HSPDP president, K P Pangniang said.
Pangniang said that the two parties discussed how to strengthen the alliance, and take a call how to proceed with the preparations for the MP election under RDA.
Asked if the RDA will also fight the elections to the autonomous district councils jointly, Pangniang said that in 2019 also, the UDP and HSPDP had already had a mutual understanding even though there was no sharing of seats while contesting the polls.
On whether the joint candidate for the Lok Sabha polls from Shillong will be fielded from the UDP, Pangniang said, “As of today, we have not disclosed the names. Let both the parties initiate and inform to the RDA the names of probable candidates, then we will decide collectively. The two parties will first identify the candidates and whoever the candidate we approve whether from the UDP or HSPDP, will be the RDA’s joint candidate.”
The UDP has 12 legislators while the HSPDP has two legislators. The two parties are supporting the NPP-led MDA government.
