SHILLONG:
People’s Democratic Front (PDF) president Gavin Miguel Mylliem on Thursday said that not only the National People’s Party (NPP), but other parties too had approached them for a merger.
“We understand that taking such a decision we need to deliberate with the Central Executive Committee so that everything goes well.”
“Yes, the NPP on their part had made the offer (for merger). But we as a party till this moment have not decided anything final on the matter,” he said.
It may be mentioned that there were recent reports that Mylliem and Mawkynrew legislator Banteidor Lyngdoh will merge with the NPP in the coming days, before the election to the Sohïong Assembly constituency.
Mylliem claims that right after the election results were declared, NPP national president and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma invited the PDF and made the offer.
“But we understand that such an issue needs to be deliberated in the Central Executive Committee and all need to come on board. We are a party which is smaller compared to other national parties and any decision should be with the understanding of all,” Mylliem added.
On reports that the PDF will merge with the NPP before the election to the Sohïong Assembly constituency, the PDF president said that such a question does not arise.
On the recent attempt to form an alliance of regional parties to form the government, he said that, even before it could have taken off, certain regional parties exited from the plan and shifted to another coalition.
“Yes, there was an effort to go ahead and form an alliance of regional fronts but as the process went on parties started exiting it,” Mylliem said.
He also said that the United Democratic Party (UDP) on March 5 sent a letter of support to the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) 2.0 led by the NPP.
Earlier, two Hill State People’s Democratic Party legislators were the first to exit the regional front which was supposed to be led by the UDP.
“Therefore, after that since the Chief Minister had requested us (PDF) on many occasions to join the alliance we decided to support the MDA 2.0,” Mylliem added.
He also said that the attempt to form a regional front with the inclusion of Voice of the People Party (VPP) could not succeed as VPP had set up various pre-conditions before joining and many who were part of the alliance could not accept these pre-requisites. This also prompted some parties to shift to the NPP-led coalition instead.
Mylliem believes that the last-ditch effort to cobble up a regional alliance led by UDP was simply not feasible because each party had its own agendas that made it impossible to accept all of VPP’s conditions.