Shillong: The United Democratic Party is walking away from a legal brawl. President Metbah Lyngdoh confirmed on Thursday that the party will stop chasing the 11 MLAs who jumped ship to join the BJP and the NPP. Court battles take too long. Instead, the lone remaining UDP lawmaker plans to prioritize rebuilding the regional party from the ground up.
Lyngdoh already filed a petition with Assembly Speaker Thomas A. Sangma regarding the eight members who fled to the BJP. He provided the requested clarifications and accepts the Speaker’s choice to recognize that merger. Still, the party may eventually weigh its options under the law.
The mass exodus leaves Lyngdoh as the party's only representative. He finds the sudden departure of 11 out of 12 elected officials hard to fathom. Voters gave these people a five-year mandate. Now, the party faces an unprecedented crisis. "There is disappointment, but we see this as a challenge and must move forward," Lyngdoh said.
The president remains confused by the silence of the defectors. None of the departing members complained about his leadership or asked him to quit before they left. He maintains he was always willing to step aside if the party wanted new blood. At his last meeting, the members kept quiet about any issues. "I have always been ready to step down if they felt I was not suitable. But when nobody complained about my leadership, what could I say?" Lyngdoh noted. While other parties have seen members leave before, the sheer scale of this move hit the UDP hard.
Comments