SHILLONG:
Amid speculations of the United Democratic Party, the second largest partner in the MDA coalition after the National People’s Party (NPP), being dropped from the government, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, on May 16, rubbished all reports and maintained that for the last five years, the UDP and NPP have worked together and they will continue to do so.
Over the past few weeks, many leaders of the NPP had hinted at the possibility of the UDP being sidelined and most of these indirect statements were made during election campaigns at Sohiong recently.
“Many things were spoken during election times. But after election, we came together and I want to stress on the fact that we have been working together for five years to take the state forward and we will continue to do so in the same spirit,” Sangma said.
Stating that the nature of elections is as such where political parties will give speeches and sometimes, words will go out of control, Sangma said, “but overall, as a coalition, we have always kept the larger interest of state at large.”
When asked whether such statements would affect the MDA coalition, the chief minister replied in the negative, “If it had to affect the coalition, it would have affected us in the 2023 general election; there was a lot of mudslinging and presumptions during election, but still the coalition remains intact,” he added.