United Democratic Party (UDP) general secretary Jemino Mawthoh has conceded that the Voice of the People Party (VPP) experienced a significant wave in terms of turnout to its rallies during campaigning for the Shillong seat in the Lok Sabha elections but the UDP will still have the votes comes counting day.
The vote for the Shillong seat was held on April 19 but the result will only be declared along with the rest of the country on June 4.
Speaking to Highland Post, Mawthoh said that no party that contested the poll can be discounted from winning it.
“If you look at the Congress Party, it has degenerated in the state with only five MLAs, including one from Garo Hills,” he said. “But the Congress representative in the Lok Sabha, Vincent Pala, has been there for the last 15 years and has also consolidated his strength and the grassroots support for the party is also there.”
The UDP entered the election in an alliance with the Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) and they put their efforts behind former pressure group leader Robertjune Kharjahrin, who had never contested politics before.
The UDP is banking on its strong showing in the 2023 state election, where it claimed 3.65 lakh votes in Khasi-Jaintia Hills (which makes up the Shillong parliamentary seat), the most of any party.
“If we can retain the vote share of 3.65 lakh and look at the strength of the UDP with 12 MLAs, the MDCs in the KHADC and JHADC and the party leadership, it cannot be discounted,” Mawthoh said.
However, the same goes for the National People’s Party (NPP), which cannot be ignored because they also have eight MLAs from Khasi-Jaintia Hills with a vote share of over 3 lakh. The NPP also received the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), though the support of the Hindu nationalist party might have been more of a hindrance than a help in Christian-majority Meghalaya.
Considering all these factors, Mawthoh said that it is hard to assess if the strong wave and campaigns of the VPP ended up in votes at the ballot box.
“The wave may be strong but the ground reality might be something else and it is really difficult to say. We experienced this in 2023 when we expected that the UDP would get around 20 seats (in the Assembly) but only got 12,” he added.
