UDP invites KHNAM into alliance

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Special Committee on Alliance of the UDP held here on Tuesday.

The meeting was chaired by the party chief Donkupar Roy in the presence of two working presidents – Bindo M Lanong and Paul Lyngdoh and general secretary Jemino Mawthoh.

“We would like to invite the KHNAM to join the regional alliance formed by the UDP and the Hill State People Democratic Party (HSPDP) to further strengthen the regional forces in the state,” Mawthoh said after the meeting.

He said the decision will be officially communicated to the leadership of the KHNAM with a hope for a positive response as he maintained that from the beginning itself, they have wanted all the regional parties to come together.

Earlier on May 25, the UDP and HSPDP have forged a pre-poll alliance to jointly fight the upcoming 2018 Assembly elections from the 36 seats in Khasi and Jaintia Hills region.

According to the leader, the process of seat arrangement between the two regional parties is nearly completed.

However, the KHNAM is also already in the process of selecting candidates which among them include its own vice president Adelbert Nongrum, who is sure to contest from North Shillong.

Asked whether they will also have a similar arrangement with the KHNAM, Mawthoh said, “We will discuss on what needs to be done. Our main aim is about coming together.”

Responding to a query whether there is any move to invite the newly floated People Democratic Front (PDF), the UDP leader however said, “We already have established regional political parties and the coming up of the PDF is still not clear to us. But we see the PDF is trying to divide the regional forces in the state.”

“However if they (PDF) are willing to toe the line with us we may be open to that (invite). We want to welcome all like-minded parties to ensure that the regional alliance materialize in a proper way,” he added.

Earlier, former MDC of the party Hispreaching Son Shylla was against the pre-poll alliance as according to him it has failed to include all regional parties of the state even as he alleged that the alliance with the HSPDP will destroy the UDP.

Defending the alliance, Mawthoh however said only time will tell and the effort for forging the alliance is going to pay dividend.

“Whatever that has been said from several quarters that the alliance is going to weaken  the UDP, we don’t buy that, as people at large are eager to see a regional force to come out and bring some kind of direction following the failures of the past governments,” he said.

According to Mawthoh, the alliance is going to be a winning preposition rather than a losing preposition as alleged.