UDP demands ousting of BJP from MDA govt

Addressing media on Monday, UDP vice president Allantry F Dkhar said that the party would take up the demand during the upcoming meeting of the MDA to be held after the district council polls.

“The MDA is slated to have its meeting after the ADC results are over and this (to remove the BJP) will be taken up there as one of the agendas,” he said.

This also came after the UDP, which is the main ally of the MDA, has decided to pull out of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) as a mark of protest against the BJP’s move to bring back Citizenship Amendment Bill after the Lok Sabha polls.

Asked whether the party would reach out to the opposition Congress in case the NPP is adamant to remove the BJP, Dkhar however said, “At this juncture I cannot comment on that but like I said earlier, we will cross the bridge when we reached there.”

The UDP leader further stated that it is not the party’s look out on how the political parties including the BJP is in the coalition government as this is the prerogative of the leading partner.

“You can point fingers at me and my party if we are leading the government. This is the misinformation campaign of the Congress across the ADC constituencies wherein they said look in Assam AGP have pulled out but in Meghalaya UDP is still part of the BJP-backed MDA because they are hungry for power, but it is nothing like that. BJP is not leading the government,” he said.

When pointed out on the UDP’s role as a king maker, Dkhar however said, “Yes UDP has made the king now it is the king’s prerogative to take a call (on whether to remove the BJP from the MDA).”

Slamming the opposition Congress for its misinformation campaign against the regional parties in the state, the UDP vice president said that the Congress is using the issue related to the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill to woo the electorate in the district council polls.

He said what is baffling is that while in Assam, the Congress has vouched to do away with the CAB whereas the AICC chairman of the manifesto drafting committee has announced that the Bill will be part of the manifesto of the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

“So here we see very clearly that the Congress as a party by itself is not sure what they want and here in the district council polls they are using this issue that is meant for parliament to sidetrack all their misgivings, failings and trying to woo the electorate to vote for their candidates by misinforming them that the UDP and all other regional parties are part and are agents of the BJP,” Dkhar said.

Stating that the UDP had already snap ties with the NEDA, he said the UDP has  never had any political arrangement with the BJP adding the party agreed to be part of the NEDA was to address the developmental issues faced by the North East region including Meghalaya.

“But we have always maintained that this (NEDA) is not a political alliance but it is a developmental platform. After seeing the BJP central leadership that it does not respect the sentiment of the people of the region, we decided to pull out of the NEDA,” he said

According to Dkhar, the failure of the Prime Minister to listen to the call against the CAB led the party to believe that there is no point of having any connection if the identity of the indigenous people is being threatened.

By Our Reporter