Shillong, Jan 15: UDP leader and cabinet minister Brolding Nongsiej on Friday said National People’s Party (NPP) is yet to make its presence felt in his Mawthadraishan constituency.

Speaking to reporters, Nongsiej said people in the constituency are still taking the NPP as a Garo party just like the people in Garo Hills taking UDP as a Khasi party.

“So the NPP is yet to make its presence felt in Mawthadraishan,” he added.

His statement comes after the candidate of the Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) decided to contest the upcoming 2023 Assembly elections from the NPP.

He said the fight is with the HSPDP, which is the oldest regional party in the state but unfortunately it is now a divided house in the constituency.

Nongsiej said the people of the constituency are not keen to support the new candidate of the HSPDP citing that he is from outside the constituency.

On the recent exit of some of the leaders from the UDP, the Mawthadraishan legislator, however, said by them leaving, of course it is affecting the party but compared to 2018, there were over 46 leaders who came out of UDP and despite of that, he won by a huge margin of over 2,000 votes.

“We have also sit as an executive committee (of the party) and we have also received reports from various villages that there are many people who wanted to join the party but we don’t want to disclose much for now,” he said.

He further claimed that many have observed that only the UDP as a regional party can bring good governance in the state.

Nongsiej also denied that all the 14 leaders were from the UDP. He said only five were from the UDP of which only two were active in party activities while the other three have been missing from the party for a very long time.