The People’s Democratic Front (PDF) is making preparations for the 2023 state elections but has yet to decide on whether it should form a pre-poll alliance with like-minded parties.
Speaking to reporters today, PDF president and cabinet minister Banteidor Lyngdoh said that the party has yet to consider whether it will contest all 36 seats in Khasi-Jaiñtia Hills. In 2018 it marked its debut Assembly campaign with four seats, which netted it two cabinet berths in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government.
Recently there has been renewed talk about a grand alliance among regional parties, though nothing has come of it yet. The Hill State People’s Democratic Party and United Democratic Party had a seat-sharing agreement in 2018 and are likely to have one again for next year.
Meanwhile, Lyngdoh also said that the PDF will, at some point, expand into Garo Hills.
On the subject of the five Congress MLAs offering support to the MDA, which Chief Minister Conrad Sangma of the National People’s Party accepted, the minister said that he welcomed the move.
“We have nothing against the Congress joining the MDA because this will only benefit and strengthen the government till the end of the term,” he said.
However, he chose not to take sides between the CM and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was not too happy at the CM’s embrace of the Congress without prior consultation. Lyngdoh said that the PDF would rather not interfere in the matter.
On the subject of defections within his own party, Lyngdoh was almost philosophical, saying that it is common for people to come and go in politics, but that he is not aware of any MLA wanting to jump ship.
There had been rumours earlier that Gavin Mylliem and Jason Sawkmie Mawlong were disgruntled at not getting a chance to sit in the cabinet. Unlike other parties, the PDF’s members did not have a seat sharing agreement, so Lyngdoh and Hamletson Dohling have kept their positions. All four of the MLAs, as it happens, are first-timers.
On election issues, Lyngdoh said that the party is firmly against illegal coal mining and has been pushing the CM to tackle the issue once and for all. The PDF is also opposed to the coming of railways to Khasi-Jaintia Hills so long as there is no specific law to tackle illegal migration. One such mechanism is the Inner Line Permit, which the party is adamantly in favour of.
