CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: Why did the UDP choose to go for the mid-term cabinet reshuffle? The question continues to dominate Meghalaya's political corridors because the United Democratic Party has offered no clear, official explanation for its abrupt decision - a silence that has triggered wider debates over transparency, internal democracy and political ethics within the party. Two months have passed since the UDP participated in the reshuffle that removed senior leaders Paul Lyngdoh and Kyrmen Shylla. Yet the core question persists: why did the UDP go ahead with the reshuffle alongside coalition partners NPP, BJP and HSPDP when its own leadership had publicly dismissed any such possibility?
"I don't think it has anything personal, nothing to do with my being personally disappointed. It is a matter of ethics and how one practices ethics in politics. Because just four days before the cabinet reshuffle, we had the celebration of the foundation day of the UDP, and the president of the party had gone on record speaking to the media and saying that we had no plan for such a reshuffle where the UDP is concerned," UDP leader Paul Lyngdoh said.
Before the cabinet reshuffle, UDP president Metbah Lyngdoh had told the media that there was no discussion within the party on going for any reshuffle. However, in the mid-term overhaul that followed, Metbah Lyngdoh - along with fellow legislator Lahkmen Rymbui - was eventually inducted into the cabinet. Paul Lyngdoh's conspicuous absence from the 16 September swearing-in ceremony had already signalled his shock and discontent. He termed the development a setback and maintained that his concerns were rooted not in personal grievance but in political ethics.
"Also, the CEC of the UDP, which had met a month before this chain of events occurred, had a few members raise the issue of whether there would be a reshuffle of ministers belonging to the UDP, since there was an imminent cabinet reshuffle happening. And it was the president of the United Democratic Party chairing the CEC who said we had no such intentions; ask these two ministers. I don't think it has anything to do with me as a person. It is not a position that I took. It was the president of the party who kept saying we had no plan for such a reshuffle, and it was the president of the party who chaired the CEC, and it was the CEC that was informed that there was no plan for such a reshuffle," he added.
Also Read: Congress Gains Momentum as TMC Woman MDC Plans to Switch Allegiance