Shillong, Sept 17: United Democratic Party (UDP) chief Metbah Lyngdoh, who was given a cabinet berth in the latest cabinet reshuffle, has termed the dropping of party colleagues Paul Lyngdoh and Kyrmen Shylla from the cabinet as a broader effort to share responsibilities among the legislators of the party.
While the leading coalition partner National People’s Party (NPP) had four of its ministers dropped from the cabinet, UDP’s two members, and one each from HSPDP and BJP faced the axe. Equal number of MLAs from the respective parties were inducted in the new cabinet.
“We are here to move ahead and to be with chief minister and to continue with the journey of MDA 2,” the UDP president said after being sworn in as a cabinet minister on Tuesday.
Asked about UDP, which has 12 MLAs in the 60-member Assembly, replacing two of its MLAs in the cabinet, Lyngdoh said, “It is basically sharing of responsibilities and I think that is the right appropriate approach…”
He further clarified that there was no prior agreement on sharing responsibilities after two-and-a-half years.
“We never had any kind of agreement, never in the past also, so it was never needed to have an agreement,” he added.
Lyngdoh emphasised that the UDP is a united party and will continue to remain so.
He asserted that the decision to reshuffle the cabinet was taken after consulting all stakeholders, including MLAs, MDCs, and party officials.
“Everybody has been taken on board for any kind of thing, and unanimously, a decision has been taken,” he added.
On Paul Lyngdoh’s absence in the swearing-in ceremony, Lyngdoh said he had some official work to attend to as his last day as minister.
“Today is the last day for him as minister, there are few things for him to clear up, so he could not attend this swearing-in ceremony,” Lyngdoh explained.
