Shillong, Dec 12: The two constituents of Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA) – UDP and HSPDP – have decided to go separate ways in the upcoming autonomous district council (ADC) elections in Khasi-Jaintia Hills even as they “pledged to continue working together”.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) in its earlier meeting with the Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) already decided to fight it alone in the ADC elections in Khasi Hills.
On Wednesday, the two parties decided against any pre-poll alliance for the elections to both Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC).
The decision was taken at an RDA meeting held under the chairmanship of UDP chief Metbah Lyngdoh in presence of HSPDP president KP Pangniang and leaders of both the parties.
“As far as the upcoming ADC elections are concerned, we have decided that the UDP will fight on its own and HSPDP also will fight on its own,” said Metbah Lyngdoh.
He said the decision was based on past experience and the need to respect the sentiment of the party workers at constituency level.
However, the two parties decided to work together under the banner of RDA.
“As RDA, we (UDP and HSPDP) have pledged to continue working together,” he said while reminding that “RDA was constituted and formed not only for the purpose of fighting elections but also for taking up very important and prioritised issues like the inner line permit (ILP), inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, boundary issue and other issues concerning the people and the state,” he said.
“Therefore, (today’s decision of not going for pre-poll alliance) doesn’t mean that the RDA is no longer there,” he said.
“I want to make it very loud and clear again and would like to reiterate this, that RDA is still intact,” Lyngdoh added.
Asked, the UDP chief said both the parties are free to put up any candidates from any constituency they wish to.
