SHILLONG, FEB 17: Opposition UDP leader Paul Lyngdoh today predicted that the February 27 Assembly polls will be the “last battle”for the ruling Congress as he exuded confidence that the regional alliance will form the next government in the state.
“The Congress is fighting its last battle and is trying to grasp at every opportunity to remain relevant and to come back to power. In the process it has very cleverly tried to manipulate public opinion by deflecting attention from its failures and bringing in the fear psychosis of Hindutva,” Lyngdoh told journalists here on Saturday.
His statement assume significance in view of the Congress’s repeated banging on the alleged nexus between the regional parties including the UDP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is using the former as its “Trojan horse” to come to power in Meghalaya.
Lyngdoh, who is also a two-time legislator from West Shillong constituency, however said but the reality is that even the chief minister himself as recently as yesterday had said that the BJP will not cross even two seats in the coming elections.
“Now which is more dangerous, the return of a party that has not performed even inspite of having 40 MLAs in the past five years or do we concentrate our attention to what the leader of the Congress itself says it will not cross two-three seats? So you can summarise that it is an attempt (by the Congress) to deflect attention” he asked.
Stating that the question of a “Trojan horse” does not arise at all, the UDP working president said that alliance formed with the Hill State People Democratic Party (HSPDP) and Garo National Council (GNC) is for taking over the reign of power after March 3.
“If we were not confident, if we had wanted to widen our circle of friends, we would have struck deals with the National People’s Party (NPP), with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the BJP so on and so forth,” he said.
The leader also claimed that the UDP had done its due diligence and had studied the situation and founded that it would be ideal for the three regional parties (UDP-HSPDP-GNC) to combine forces and hence come up with the alliance.
Moreover, he said in fact it is the Congress which people now want to eject from power and realising that it cannot come back to power from the main door is trying to come back to power from the backdoor using the “fear of Hindutva”.
“But the people of Meghalaya have enough wisdom and ability to differentiate between right and wrong and I am sure nobody would like to see the return of the Congress which has failed us inspite of having such a robust number in the Assembly,” he added.
Asked if given the choice, which national party the regional alliance would prefer to work with the Congress or the BJP, Lyngdoh however said that the regional alliance do not need a choice as it is confident that it will sail through and come up with a comfortable number.
“We will cross the half-way mark,” he said while revealing that in case the regional alliance could not cross the half-way mark on its own, it had already established contacts with some independent candidates with strong winning chances to form the next government.
According to him, they (independent candidates) all would not like to see return of the Congress because it has failed not for five but for eight years in the recent past apart from decades that they are in power.
“Our arithematic will prove us right and we also are confident that we will not be needing the support (of either the Congress or the BJP),” he maintained.
Reacting to another query, the UDP leader said the regional alliance is confident because of the massive anti-incumbency wave and that the ruling Congress’s strength will be reduced significantly.
Also predicting that the BJP will not be able to perform in the coming election as it had claimed, he said that in that situation who will be the biggest beneficiary if not the regional alliance.
“Our assessment is that even in the worst case scenario this alliance will emerge as the single largest entity. So when you have the largest entity it is only natural for the other parties for the independents to flock into this alliance in case there is a need for it,” he added.
Meanwhile, Lyngdoh informed that the UDP will be releasing its election manifesto which is a very comprehensive document on Monday next.
By Our Reporter
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