Shillong Oct 6: The United Democratic Party (UDP) has decided to extend support to National People’s Party (NPP) candidate Pyniaid Sing Syiem for the Mawryngkneng bypoll, scheduled for October 30.
Addressing media persons, UDP chief and Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh said the party has decided not to field candidate from Mawryngkneng constituency.
“This is because the circle leaders of the party have suggested that this time they will not field any candidate and that they would like to extend their support as a party to Pyniaid Sing Syiem, who is the sitting MDC and NPP candidate. As the party at the state level, we have endorsed the decision taken at the circle level and therefore announced that we will not be putting any candidate from Mawryngkneng and that support will be extended to Syiem,” he said.
Lyngdoh said that the decision to support Syiem was because of the different issues and different development activities within the constituencies.
When asked, the UDP chief however denied that Syiem is a common candidate of the MDA and said, “I will not say that because we don’t have any kind of understanding at the state level as far as that part is concerned but our support will for him (Syiem).”
He also said that as far as the decision pertaining to Mawryngkneng and Mawphlang is concerned, it was not only taken at the party level but also with the consent of the Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA) partner which is the Hill State People’s Party (HSPDP)
On NPP’s decision to field sitting MDC from Mawphlang Lamphrang Blah, the UDP chief said the NPP will definitely like to say that their candidate will win the election. “But we also would like to assure that we will definitely work very hard for our candidate Eugeneson from Mawphlang constituency and ensure he sails through,” he said.
Metbah further admitted that the sympathy wave will have an impact to some extent. “However, both sympathy and the candidate matters a lot,”he stated.
