KSU launches new political party

SHILLONG, June 15 ? The Khasi Students? Union (KSU) yesterday formally launched a new regional party saying it needed to wield political power to achieve its avowed objective of protecting and promoting the interests of the ?Hynniewtrep? people which comprise the Khasi and Jaintia tribes. The new outfit entitled Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) will contest all the 36 Assembly seats in the districts of East and West Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi and Jaintia Hills, party president and former KSU chief Paul Lyngdoh told newsmen last evening. Explaining the reason for forming the new regional party, the former KSU president said, ?the existing political parties in the State have failed for the last 30 years in protecting the interests of the state and its people. ?Our top priority, if we come to power, will be to root out corruption,? he claimed. To achieve this, the party legislators will be made totally accountable, he said. While branding all political parties as failures, Lyngdoh did not rule out alignment with some political parties in the event of no party securing majority. Surprisingly, the launching of the new party was announced by Paul Lyngdoh himself though the newly elected KSU president Samuel Jyrwa was present at the press conference held at Shillong Press Club. Jyrwa?s only words were ?KHNAN is our creation. We will help it and at the sometime act as a watch-dog.? The coming days are likely to show whether the KHNAM remains the political wing of the KSU or the KSU turns the students? wing of the newly formed political party.