Shillong, March 29: A new regional political party - People's Democratic Front - is on Meghalaya's political horizon and will be one of the players in next year's Assembly polls.

The front, which is expected to rope in certain sitting legislators and members of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), will be officially unveiled here on Friday.

A source said the party would have representations from a cross-section of society, including students.

"In the past, we have been interacting with people from various backgrounds on the need to do something substantial on the political front. Our interactions have led us to come up with the idea of forming the PDF," the source said.

Earlier, there were reports that incumbent chief of the KHADC P.N. Syiem, who is currently suspended from the Congress, would be leading the front. "We have been approaching certain legislators to join the front, but we will be divulging the details only on Friday," the source added.

Syiem was suspended last year because of his anti-party activities. His suspension also resulted in the resignation of other Congress members of the KHADC from the party.

Moreover, the source pointed out that the front would be a pan-Meghalaya political party, implying that it will attempt to have its presence in all the 60 Assembly constituencies located in the Khasi-Jaintia hills and Garo hills region. "We will surely have a presence even in the Garo hills region, besides the Khasi-Jaintia hills," the source added.

The source said the front will be preparing itself to contest the Assembly polls to be held in February-March next year.

The front, which will be the latest entrant into the Meghalaya political map, will have to compete with established players like the Congress, National People's Party (NPP), United Democratic Party (UDP), Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) and others.

The BJP, which emerged as the second-largest party in the recently concluded Manipur polls, and, which formed and leads the state government there, is also expected to make its presence felt in the Meghalaya Assembly.

Although there are talks of pre-poll alliances to take on the ruling Congress, the state BJP has made its intentions clear to contest the polls alone.

Much will depend on the BJP's central leadership to take a call on the question of establishing a pre-poll alliance as its existing front - North East Democratic Alliance (Neda) - comprises regional political parties from Meghalaya as well.