National People’s Party (NPP) offers UDP Rajya Sabha seat

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: The National People’s Party (NPP) which is leading the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) coalition government has reportedly offered the United Democratic Party (UDP) the Rajya Sabha seat while the NPP has set up its own candidates for the Shillong and Tura Parliamentary seats for the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls.

“This offer has come from the National People’s Party that the Rajya Sabha seat will be given to the UDP if it allows the NPP to set up its own candidate for the Shillong seat as the coalition partner’s common candidate,” sources said.

According to sources, the NPP has also made an offer to the UDP that, if there is an agreement, the latter can choose a candidate but he will have to fight on an NPP ticket.

Sources in the UDP said that the party very well understands that the NPP wants to position itself as a major player in the 2019 MP elections and to do so it will be imperative on the party of the party to win the maximum number of seats from Northeast in general and Meghalaya in particular.

It may be mentioned that Meghalaya has two Lok Sabha seats – Shillong and Tura. Shillong is presently represented by Congress’ Vincent H Pala while the Tura seat is vacant after Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma of the National People’s Party was elected as an MLA. The UDP had urged the MDA partners to accept the party’s nominee as a common candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Shillong seat.

It had also made it clear that the National People’s Party should accept the UDP’s nominee for the sake of stability of the MDA government.