Shillong, Apr 5: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh said the Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA) is a misfit even to consider it as having regional character.
RDA, an alliance of both the UDP and the HSPDP, has fielded Robertjune Kharjahrin.
Speaking to journalists after releasing the manifesto of the VPP on Friday, the VPP leader said, “When you talk about RDA, are they really regional, they are ready to work with anyone even with those who are opposing regional agendas. So what regionalism they have. They work with the people who support the CAA, who are against ILP”.
Myrboh was reacting to a question whether the RDA fielding a candidate will affect the poll outcome of VPP.
According to Myrboh, the 2024 Lok Sabha election is not a fight between the two regional parties.
“The fight here is between effective, corruption free, responsible and accountable governance and on the other hand we have a group of people irrespective of what name they are named but they belong to one category and that is politics of opportunism, of selfishness, of aggrandisement,” Myrboh asserted.
He said during the election there is no regionalism or nationalism but there is war between two groups one that fights for real issues of the people and another which is so scared that they will be dislodged from power which they have been enjoying for so long.
ILP issue
The VPP also accused the legislators belonging to different political parties for half-heartedly supporting the Inner Line Permit (ILP) resolution, when it was passed in the State Assembly.
Myrboh said the party respects the wisdom of the Assembly for passing the resolution to urge the Centre for immediate implementation of the ILP in Meghalaya.
“But looking at the members of the Legislative Assembly, which passed this resolution and if you look at the history of their stand on the ILP, it proves to be otherwise, they were the people, who I would say half-heartedly or even quarter committed to the ILP,” he said.
Myrboh said it was unfortunate that the Centre not only failed to give ILP to Meghalaya but had even removed the words Khasi-Jaintia Hills District from the preamble of the regulation of 1873. “This is totally a failure on the part of the state government”, he added.
Myrboh said that in view of this, the VPP has decided to pursue aggressively with the Centre on the ILP issue.
“We will not stop and we will put pressure on the Central government,” he asserted.
