Skipping the meetings of their own party has been the new method by political turncoats ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections.
Mylliem MLA and cabinet minister Hamlet Dohling and Umsning MLA Jason S. Mawlong have distanced themselves from the PDF for quite some time.
“They never told us if they wanted to remain in the party or not,” a PDF member said.
Finally, party members realised that the two had decided to shift loyalty when they failed to turn up at the PDF central executive committee meeting at Mawkhar here yesterday.
Meanwhile, sources said that both Dohling and Mawlong have made up their mind to contest the 2023 polls on the NPP ticket.
Similar is the case with Sohiong MLA Samlin Malngiang.
Malngiang who was elected on HSPDP ticket in the 2018 Assembly polls has remained unavailable to party leaders since the past few months.
HSPDP leaders have tried to meet him but he was never to be found.
“We went to his house but we could not meet him,” an HSPDP leader said.
There are rumours that Malngiang is contesting the 2023 polls on the NPP ticket.
His party colleague Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar who has also skipped a number of party meetings has decided to join the UDP.
Other MLAs who have distanced themselves from their own party are Himalaya M. Shangpliang and Shitlang Pale of the All India Trinamool Congress.
Shangpliang, an MLA from Mawsynram, has been absent from party meetings as also Pale, an MLA from Sutnga-Saipung.
While Shangpliang is likely to join the BJP, Pale is reportedly thinking of switching over to the UDP.
