KHADC political drama: Latiplang vs Teinwell for CEM post

Shillong, Nov 21:

Two senior MDCs, Latiplang Kharkongor and Teinwell Dkhar will contest for the election of the new Chief Executive Member (CEM) in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), which is scheduled to be held on Friday.

Kharkongor, who is an independent MDC from Nongthymmai, has filed his nomination from the newly formed United Democratic Forum (UDF) while Dkhar filed his nomination from the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

The contest for the CEM is likely to be a close one with both the UDF and UDA claiming the support of 14 MDCs each except for the chairman. The imposition of the Administrator Rule in the KHADC is on the card if there is yet another tie in the election of the CEM.

In the house of 29, the UDF has the support of 9 Congress MDCs, 1 PDF, 2 NPP and two independent MDCs while the UDA has the support 7 UDP, 4 NPP, 2 HSPDP bad one independent MDC.

The need for the election of the new CEM came after the UDP led EC under the leadership of Teinwell Dkhar had collapsed on Wednesday after failing to survive the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition.

While speaking to reporters after filing his nomination for the election of the CEM, Kharkongor said that he is confident that he will win the election of the CEM since the UDF is now in the majority.

Interestingly, Congress which is a major ally of the UDF with nine MDCs, has refused to take the CEM post paving way for Kharkongor to contest the CEM post.

"You have witnessed yesterday that the Chairman, Pynshngain N Syiem is supporting the UDF. I have no doubt that I am going to be elected to the CEM post," the independent MDC from Nongthymmai said.

Meanwhile, Dkhar also expressed confident that he is going to be re-elected to the post of CEM adding that the MDCs of the UDA are intact except those who have left the alliance to join hands with the Congress.

He accused the KHADC chairman, PN Syiem of bring responsible for the collapse of his EC.

It may be recalled that during the voting of the no-confidence motion yesterday, both the ruling coalition and the opposition got 14 votes each. The UDP led EC collapsed after the Chairman voted in support of the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition.