HSPDP to abstain from Presidential polls

SHILLONG, JULY 6: The Hill State People Democratic Party (HSPDP), one of the opposition regional political parties in the state, has decided to abstain from the July 17 – presidential election as a mark of opposition against the NDA nominee’s “anti-minority” stand and Congress years’ of failures.

The decision was taken at the central executive committee (CEC) meeting of the party which was attended by all its representatives in the state Assembly, held here on Wednesday.

The HSPDP is having four MLAs – Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, Witting Mawsor, PK Pangniang and D Jyndiang – in the 60-member House.

“We have unanimously decided to abstain from the forthcoming presidential election,” Basaiawmoit, who is also the chief of the HPSPD, announced after the meeting.

Citing the main reasons, he said that the party’s MLAs do not want to vote for the ruling NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind due to his alleged anti-minority stand.

“We cannot vote for a non-secular person and how can we allow such a person with this kind of mindset. He (Kovind) do not deserve to occupy the post of the president,” Basaiawmoit said.

He was referring to a recent statement made by Kovind, who was also a governor of Bihar, when he described Islam and Christianity as “alien to the nation” while opposing reservation in government for backward sections of religious minorities in India.

It may be mentioned here that in 2009, the Ranganath Misra commission had recommended 10 percent reservation for Muslims and five percent for other minorities in government jobs and favored Scheduled Caste status for Dalits in all religions.

In the meantime, Basaiawmoit also said that they would also decline to vote for the opposition Congress nominee Meira Kumar on the ground the “Congress as a party has failed to govern the country despite of being in the ruling for several decades”.