SHILLONG, May 4 – Denying any rift among the five partners of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) in the wake of fielding separate candidates for the April 20 Lok Sabha polls in the Shillong constituency, Chief Minister D D Lapang has claimed the coalition was ‘intact,’ reports PTI.
“The fact remians that the we have started together and we stick to that. We got no complaints and petitions (about misunderstandings among the allies).... MDA is intact,” Lapang told reporters here yesterday on a question of a possible rift in the ruling coalition. Lapang said the alliance partners fought many polls separately and maintained that the elections cannot be a ‘battlefield’ to break the understandings.
Media reports here highlighted dissentment among Congress and its four partners on the issue of fielding separate aspirants for the elections in the Shillong seat. While Congress retained outgoing MP P R Kyndiah, its four partners put up a common candidate in S Loniak Marbaniang.
Prior to the elections, Lapang said, he had clarified to the MDA partners that Congress was ‘bound’ to take directives from party high command and follow a procedure to nominate its candidate and therefore would not go with the regional outfits for a common candidate. “But we have allowed others and not prevented them from fighting elections,” said Lapang, chairman of North East Congress Coordination Committee.