Shillong, Mar 5: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Shillong and Tura Parliamentary seats and that it would not any more wait for the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance to announce a consensus candidate.

The BJP wanted to go ahead, because of the delay on the part of the MDA to select a common candidate for the upcoming general elections.

The BJP is part of the MDA government led by the NPP and supported by other parties like the UDP, HSPDP, PDF, NCP and Independents.

This decision was taken at a meeting on Tuesday which was chaired by BJP general secretary in-charge North East, Ajay Jamuwal. The meeting was attended by state BJP leaders and workers.

“We have decided in principle to contest the Lok Sabha elections from both the seats in Meghalaya,” BJP leader and Health Minister, AL Hek told reporters.

Hek informed that an election committee would soon be constituted for inviting applications from aspiring candidates who are interested to contest the upcoming elections from the party.

According to Hek, a delegation of the state party will also be meeting the national president Amit Shah to inform him about the decision.

“We have decided that the BJP being a national party, will field its candidates for Lok Sabha polls and we are confident of winning both the seats. The BJP had only two MPs in 1984, but now it is the biggest party in the country,” Hek said while reacting to a query on poor performance of the party in the 2018 Assembly polls.

BJP state president Shibun Lyngdoh said that the party had earlier thought of supporting the MDA’s consensus candidate and had waited for the MDA to propose the consensus candidate, but nothing happened till today. “We have decided not to wait anymore,” he added.

On the other hand, the State BJP vice president, David Kharsati said that for district council, state assembly and Lok Sabha the party has different formula. “There are only two national parties the BJP and the Congress. With the Congress having been rejected, the only option for the people now is the BJP,” Kharsati claimed.

Hek said that the demand to remove the BJP from the MDA does not arise because according to the UDP, such statement was based on personal opinion of some individuals, and not a decision taken by the party.