The UDP will announce its candidate for the elections to the Shillong Lok Sabha seat in a couple of weeks from today.
This was informed by cabinet minister and UDP working president Paul Lyngdoh to media persons here today.
“As far as the UDP is concerned we have gone ahead with the process of identifying our candidate and the process should be through in the next one month or even less than that,” Lyngdoh said.
Stating that the process to identify the probable party candidates for the district council elections is in full swing, Lyngdoh said, “The state election committee has already met a couple of times and we should be in a position to have at least the preliminary list of candidates ready by January end.”
On speculation that former Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) president Robertjune Kharjahrin is the front runner for the ticket from the Shillong parliamentary seat, Lyngdoh said that he is one of the individuals who have expressed interest in contesting.
“As we speak there are three or four contenders,” he added. The UDP and the HSPDP under the umbrella of the Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA) have decided to field a common candidate from the Shillong parliamentary seat.
Apart from Kharjahrin, Khasi Authors’ Society president D Rockyer L. Nonglait and former Mawlai MLA Process T. Sawkmie have also expressed their willingness to contest from the UDP.
Another MDA partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party is also scouting for potential candidates to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
So far the Voice of the People Party (VPP) and the NPP have declared their candidates for the Lok Sabha polls slated for 2024.
The VPP has named their general secretary Ricky A J Syngkon as its candidate for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat while the NPP has named sitting Member of Parliament Agatha Sangma for the Tura seat and cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh from Shillong seat.
The opposition Congress will in all probability announce the name of sitting Shillong Lok Sabha MP Vincent H. Pala as the candidate.
