After apparent differences emerged between its senior members, the United Democratic Party (UDP) presented a united front, with party President Metbah Lyngdoh saying that the party’s demand to remove James Sangma as Power Minister stands.
Lyngdoh convened a meeting today to discuss the fallout after Mawthoh sent a letter to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma earlier this week that called for James to be removed from this particular portfolio. The letter also demanded the removal of the Chairman and Managing Director of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL), Arunkumar Kembhavi.
The UDP, which is an ally of the Sangma brothers’ National People’s Party in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, is extremely dissatisfied with the performance of the state’s Power Department.
Also at today’s meeting were UDP Senior Advisor Bindo Lanong, Jaiaw MDC Paul Lyngdoh and UDP Vice-President Allantry Dkhar.
Except for Lyngdoh, none of these UDP figures are MLAs. Asked whether the UDP legislators are aware of the demand to remove their colleague James, Mawthoh replied, “Everyone is aware. The whole state is aware. The people are aware. It is a people’s problem and we are doing it for the people’s interest.”
The call to sack James is expected to be raised in the MDA’s coordination committee. Lyngdoh said he will also raise the matter with the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, the UDP will formally meet to thrash out issues of misunderstanding between the senior party figures and the MLAs. A day after Mawthoh had penned the demand to the CM, Home Minister and UDP MLA Lahkmen Rymbui denied knowing anything about it.
This meeting will likely take place only after campaigning ends for next month’s Garo Hills Autonomous District Council election.
However, Lyngdoh said that he does not see the misunderstanding within the party as a serious issue.
Stating that the MeECL should be revamped, Lyngdoh said that corrective measures have to be taken to bail the MeECL out from its current financial crisis, though he added that these issues have plagued the corporation from well before the MDA came to power.
