He defied the party and ran as an independent in the Assembly election of 2023 but Bindo M Lanong is a little disappointed that the United Democratic Party (UDP) has since snubbed him.
The UDP picked Lambor Malngiang to run for the Nongkrem seat, a constituency that Lanong had coveted. Lanong was particularly unhappy that the party had picked Malngiang even though he was a recent UDP joinee whereas Lanong was a founder member of the party. In the end, however, both lost to Ardent M Basaiawmoit. Malngiang finished second but veteran Lanong was dead last with 135 votes, even fewer than NOTA.
Today, Lanong clarified his stance on his affiliation with the UDP. He said that the UDP president, Metbah Lyngdoh, previously stated after the Assembly election that Lanong was still a UDP member. However, yesterday, Lyngdoh indicated that Lanong’s decision to contest against the UDP candidate suggested that he was no longer with the party.
Lanong explained that he was disappointed with the party’s decision to field an outsider (Malngiang, who had won the Nongkrem seat in 2018 as an independent) even as he stated that had the UDP had a member to run he would never have gone against the party’s decision.
Forgiving all that had happened, Lanong had written to the UDP president and general secretary to express his interest in contesting the Lok Sabha election but received no response. As a founding member, he still held hopes of being invited to the UDP’s annual general council meeting but was again ignored, which led him to believe that he was no longer a part of the UDP.
Moreover, Lanong criticised the UDP’s leadership for their poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha election, where the party candidate won a measly 44,000-plus votes (less than 5 percent) and emphasised that the party’s failure to secure a significant number of votes reflected a leadership crisis.
