State government spokesperson and United Democratic Party (UDP) leader Paul Lyngdoh today stated that populist waves do not last long in politics.
Speaking to reporters on the debacle of the UDP and other allied parties in the Lok Sabha election, he said that the UDP has faced a temporary setback.
The UDP only contested the Shillong Lok Sabha seat where its candidate, Robertjune Kharjahrin, who had no experience of electoral politics prior, came a distant fourth with fewer than 50,000 votes, less than a tenth of the 5 lakh-plus won by the Voice of the People Party (VPP) winner Ricky AJ Syngkon.
Lyngdoh, who knows what it’s like to lose a Parliamentary election having experienced the same in 2014, today tried to put a brave spin on what was a deeply humiliating loss for the more established UDP against newcomers VPP, both regional parties. Asserting that every election throws its own surprises, Lyngdoh however added that the emergence of the VPP as a significant player in Meghalaya’s politics is now a confirmed reality.
“There were a lot of factors that led to the downfall (of the UDP) but most important was we were racing against time and our candidate could only start moving after January and, therefore, the campaign was limited to certain areas and we couldn’t penetrate deeper than that,” Lyngdoh said when asked about the factors that led to the UDP’s defeat.
He added that nothing is permanent and the party is confident of bouncing back even though it will need to introspect.
Referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) own slide nationally, Lyngdoh said that the Prime Minister who spoke of 400-plus seats is trying to establish strong links with other allies since the BJP does not have the mandate to govern on its own as it failed to win a majority of seats. “So these are things that are very common in politics and the fact that we (UDP) have hit rock bottom also means that there is no way for us to go lower than this but the only option is to bounce back,” he said.
Asked to comment on VPP’s plans to swallow or replace all regional parties in Meghalaya, he said that this is a common statement they will make with the mandate they have got but in the Assembly the UDP has 12 MLAs of its own and its close ally the HSPDP has two besides having a strong presence in both the Khasi and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Councils (KHADC and JHADC).After this defeat, the party plans to introspect, gauge the situation and get feedback from party leaders right down to districts and constituency levels and after receiving inputs, they will come up with a counter strategy.When asked if allegations of corruption have hurt the parties in the state government, he said that it is very easy for somebody not in a position of power to lay all the blame and ills upon the doorstep of the government.
