The Voice of the People Party (VPP) and Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA), which comprises the United Democratic Party (UDP) and Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP), well know that they are battling each other over a significant votebank and are doing all they can to put down the other side ahead of the April 19 Lok Sabha election.
The RDA has put forward Robertjune Kharjahrin as its candidate for the Shillong seat while the VPP is fielding Ricky AJ Syngkon. Both sides are positioning themselves as true representatives of the jaidbynriew.
Today, VPP spokesman Batskhem Myrboh said that the election is not a fight between two regional parties. “The fight here is between effective, corruption-free, responsible and accountable governance and on the other hand we have a group of people irrespective of what name they are called but they belong to one category and that is politics of opportunism, of selfishness, of aggrandisement,” he said in a no-holds-barred attack on the UDP-HSPDP combine.
Myrboh was responding to a query on whether the fight between the RDA and VPP will open up the way for a national party candidate to win.
“When you talk about RDA, are they really regional? They are ready to work with anyone, even with those who are opposing regional agendas. So what regionalism do they have? They work with the people who support the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and who are against ILP (Inner Line Permit),” he claimed.
Myrboh added that there is no regionalism or nationalism in an election but it is a fight between two groups – one that fights for real issues of the people and another that is scared to be dislodged from power.
