The Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA) a coalition of United Democratic Party (UDP) and Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HDPDP) today met to initiate the process for fighting the upcoming autonomous district council polls together.
Assistant secretary of the RDA and Sohra MDC Titosstarwell Chyne told reporters, “We shared our thoughts but there were no proposals yet on which party will contest from which constituencies. The alliance partners shared the spirit of working together in the district council elections.”
According to Chyne another round of meeting will be held on December 11 on how to work together as an alliance in the district council polls. “The intricacies on how to fight together the autonomous district council polls will be chalked out,” he added.
Chyne also refuted reports that the UDP has finalised the names of four candidates for the Shillong city. According to him the names of the four candidates have been sent to the State Election Committee for its approval.
He informed that the UDP will finalise the first list of candidates after the State Election Committee meeting on December 13.
When asked about the UDP’s debacle in the recent Lok Sabha polls wherein its candidate stood a distant fourth, Chyne said that Parliamentary elections are different from local elections even as he predicted that the results in the upcoming autonomous district council voting will be different.
“We are optimistic and positive that the RDA will do better,” he said even as he predicted that no party will get a majority on its own after the autonomous district council elections in both the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC).
Meanwhile, RDA secretary and HSPDP president KP Pangniang when asked if the two party MLAs—Shakilar Warjri and Methodius Dkhar—will back the UDP given the fact that they did not campaign for the UDP candidate during the Lok Sabha polls, he only said “Both are part and parcel of the HSPDP… we have an understanding in the RDA.”
