Cabinet Minister and president of the People’s Democratic Front (PDF), Banteidor Lyngdoh, revealed today that the new Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president, Vincent Pala, had tried to get him to return to the Congress.
Lyngdoh had first started out as a Congress MDC before making the switch to the PDF, a relatively new regional outfit which has four MLAs in the Assembly.
“At the moment I can’t say yes or no. As of now I am with the PDF and I am its president,” Lyngdoh said he told Pala.
The cabinet minister was first elected as the MDC for Mawkynrew in the Khasi Hill Autonomous District Council in 2014. However, he split with the Congress in 2016 and won a seat in the Assembly on a PDF ticket two years later.
Lyngdoh said that, at the moment, his focus is on how to strengthen the PDF, though he could not rule out a return to the grand old party in the future.
“We all have come forward to serve the people of the state. There are different parties but the objective is to serve the people,” he added.
On criticisms that the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, of which the PDF is a part, is not performing up to the expectations of the public, he said that disapproval is as much a part of governance as admiration and both have to be taken on board.
“We need to sit (as a government) and address whatever issues there are. There are issues that affect society and we need to earn the confidence of the people of the state,” Lyngdoh added.
