TURA: seething in anger over alleged betrayal of their official candidate by a section of Congress leaders leading to a humiliating defeat at the hands of the NPP, party workers and supporters are demanding stern action against the rebels.
A day after the poll results, party workers from Williamnagar constituency including block committee and youth members held a meeting at Congress bhawan in Williamnagar wherein supporters blamed former chief minister Mukul Sangma for engineering the defeat of Deborah Marak.
They are calling for stern action against the former chief minister and his supporters who allegedly worked against the Congress in Williamnagar.
A section of angry youth Congress members even called for the burning of the former chief minister’s effigy and elders had to step in to calm tempers.
“Right from former chief minister Mukul Sangma to his daughter and son in law Daryl William they had camped in the constituency to work for Independent candidate Sengbath Marak,” alleged block Congress members.
They claimed that while Mukul Sangma and his daughter stationed themselves at Rongsak village, Daryl, on the other hand, was moving through and fro Nokil Awe locality clandestinely working against Deborah Marak’s candidature.
Congress workers from Ampati and Songsak, including MDC Stevie Marak, were allegedly ferried in to campaign extensively for Sengbath Marak.
“As the leader of the Congress Legislative Party he (Mukul) should have put a stop to the anti-Congress campaign. With what guts they dared to work against the party candidate unless they had the backing of a senior party leader?” Pointed out Deborah Marak.
She added that a large chunk of disgusted Congress supporters crossed over to the NPP after they were advised to support Sengbath Marak’s candidature.
“If you look at the results you will notice that we were on the way to victory if rebel candidates had not been propped up,” feels Deborah.
She referred to the cumulative votes garnered by herself, Sengbath and another Congress rebel Lahatson that would have pushed the Congress tally to 9721 votes, 163 votes more than the NPP’s total votes.
Party workers for Williamnagar are now calling for action from the AICC leaders against the rebels who brought down the Congress citadel in Williamnagar.