Shillong, Sep 17: United Democratic Party (UDP) general secretary and Sohra MDC Titosstarwell Chyne today said that former minister Paul Lyngdoh and Kyrmen Shylla have not given the party any indication that they were unhappy at having to give up their cabinet seats to UDP president and Mairang MLA Metbah Lyngdoh and Amlarem MLA Lahkmen Rymbui.
During the mid-term reshuffle of the cabinet earlier this week, the UDP changed their two ministers and Metbah and Rymbui replaced Paul and Shylla.
“They (Paul and Shylla) did not express [anything] or showed dissatisfaction during the meeting of the MLAs,” The UDP general secretary said, referring to a meeting on Monday wherein it was decided that the switch would take place.
According to him, all the MLAs were taken onboard about the decision to drop Paul and Shylla at a UDP parliamentary party meeting.
On the statement made by Paul that there had been no arrangement to share the cabinet berths, Chyne said that this was true but that the current political situation arose for the change.
“There is no full stop in politics. It can change anytime. That’s why we didn’t justify that there was any agreement. But this happened because of the political situation,” he added.
On certain rumblings of discontent within the UDP that the party president should not have taken up the cabinet berth, Chyne said that even the late Donkupar Roy was party president when he was in the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
Even the present CM, Conrad K Sangma, is also the national president of the National People’s Party. “Do you see that Conrad Sangma cannot run the party? He is not only busy as the CM but also as the president of the party,” Chyne added.
