The high command of the United Democratic Party (UDP) will decide on whether or not to continue its relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in due course, party MLA Mayralborn Syiem said today.
The UDP sits with the BJP as part of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government. It has been suggested that the alliance with the Hindu nationalist BJP cost the UDP and the National People’s Party (the lead party in the MDA) votes in Christian majority Meghalaya at the recent Lok Sabha elections.
The UDP’s candidate for the Shillong seat, Robertjune Kharjahrin, polled particularly badly, garnering a mere 44,000 votes or 4.29 per cent, one of the worst performances the party has experienced in Parliamentary elections.
Asked to comment on the matter, Syiem has said that it is the party high command that will take a call as far as reviewing ties with the BJP.
Terming the political situation as an era of coalition, he said that even the BJP has had to take the help of smaller political parties to form a government at the Centre.
Only once has a party won a majority of seats in Meghalaya and that was in 1972 at the state’s founding. Therefore, every political party has to adjust to others in a coalition if the state is to be governed, the Nongpoh legislator said.
Meanwhile, Syiem was also asked about the Voice of the People Party’s (VPP) claim that it will soon replace all the other regional parties in Khasi-Jaintia Hills, like the UDP. It was the VPP candidate that won the Shillong election by a whopping margin.
Syiem, however, said that the VPP, which only has four seats in the Assembly and none in any of the district councils, still has to prove its strength in these bodies. District council elections had been due earlier this year but were postponed as the process of redrawing the constituency boundaries (delimitation) is ongoing.
