Shillong, June 9: As many as 6 sitting legislators from other political parties will be joining the United Democratic Party (UDP) ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections.
This was informed by the UDP chief Metbah Lyngdoh after chairing the meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC), which unanimously constituted the State Election Committee (SEC) for finalizing the candidates for the upcoming polls in the state.
“As of now, it is confirmed that 6 sitting MLAs from other political parties will be joining our party,” Lyngdoh, who is also currently the Assembly Speaker, told reporters.
He informed that talks and discussions are also going on with other sitting MLAs. “We need to have a lot of discussion so that we can take a call as far as their candidature is concerned from our party,” he added.
Lyngdoh further said the party already has candidates in 29 constituencies which include its eight sitting legislators.
“We have almost 15 promising candidates whom we would be fielding from those respective constituencies. However, the state election committee was constituted today to examine and analyse and to go in-depth about the decision they will take as far as the right candidates in those constituencies is concerned,” he said.
Referring to a statement made by former Congress leader HDR Lyngdoh, who will soon join the UDP, that it is time for regional parties to lead the state, Lyngdoh said, “This really proves that the UDP now is one of the leading regional parties and it is the right party.”
“It has been witnessed that even sitting MLAs or ex-MLAs who have contested from national parties for years together now have changed their mind and decided to come and offer their candidature from our party. So we are very happy to see that this trend is going on and we hope that others also will follow in due course of time.”
On the narrative that UDP is a Khasi party, the UDP chief said the question of Khasi and Garo does not arise. “UDP is a party which consists of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo. Today, I have made it clear also to all our colleagues from Garo Hills that this gap which is there among Garos and Khasi and Jaintia has to be closed and we as a party have to take the lead,” he said.
