Meghalaya’s VPP to sit in opposition in Lok Sabha, not to join INDIA bloc

Shillong, June 12 (IANS) The new regional outfit in Meghalaya, Voice of the People Party (VPP), which won the Shillong Lok Sabha seat, will sit in the opposition in the Lower House, but will not join the INDIA bloc.Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, the president of VPP, told IANS, “We have a certain ideology that asserts safeguarding the minority people and we can not compromise on that front. That is why we will not support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP.”He said that as they have not supported the NDA, the lone MP of VPP will sit in the opposition but they are not going to join the opposition bloc.“Our MP will sit in the opposition bench in the Lower House of Parliament. However, the VPP will not join the INDIA bloc,” Basaiawmoit said.The VPP leader also said that based on Meghalaya’s development issues, their Lok Sabha MP may support the decisions of the ruling government at the Centre as well.He asserted that the development of the hill state stands as a priority for the VPP and people have supported them for this.Basaiawmoit stated, “We fought Lok Sabha polls as people helped us a lot. Our party did not have enough money to contest elections and the general people funded us. So, we have to give priority to solving people’s difficulties.”Notably, Ricky Andrew J. Syngkon, the leader of VPP, stunned two political heavyweights in the hill state by defeating them in the Lok Sabha polls by a formidable margin of more than 3.71 lakh votes.Syngkon, a professor of commerce at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong, defeated three-time MP from Shillong Lok Sabha seat Vincent Pala in the Lok Sabha polls. Moreover, the ruling party’s candidate and state health minister, Ampareen Lyngdoh, also could not hold ground before Prof Syngkon, who contested the polls for the first time.–IANStdr/dpb