From CK Nayak
New Delhi: The ‘virtual war’ between the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC} and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) over ‘sham BCC elections in Meghalaya’ seems to have reached a crescendo with the latter asking the State unit to stop such ‘unauthorized’ practice immediately since it was not in the interest of the party.
In its latest communication to the MPCC sent on the eve of Republic Day, the AICC said that the election process must stop with immediate effect. It also took the MPCC to task for carrying out such elections despite clear instructions forbidding the same.
Despite the AICC directive to stop holding elections at the block level to select prospective candidates for the 2013 Assembly elections, the MPCC went ahead with the elections, justifying the same by saying that the names of the ticket aspirants from the blocks would be forwarded to the District Congress Committee as well as the State Election Committee before submission to the AICC for final approval.
MPCC acting president Deborah C Marak had even attributed the controversy to a ‘communication gap’ between the MPCC and the AICC. She had also stated that the elections were conducted following the decision of the MPCC executive body on September 19 which favoured such an exercise for ‘identification’ of candidates.
“The AICC was misinformed that the Block Congress Committee (BCC) on its own would be allotting tickets to candidates for the 2013 Assembly elections,” Marak said, adding that she had already clarified the matter to the AICC general secretary in charge of Meghalaya, Dhaniram Shandil, that these elections were only an exercise to find suitable candidates for the 2013 election.
However, the latest AICC communiqué to the MPCC mentioned that complaints against the ‘sham elections’ had poured out from the State unit itself. The communiqué also took the MPCC acting president to task for not abiding by the earlier AICC directive to stop any unauthorized election process.
The AICC was seriously upset over the developments where the names of certain candidates had been declared from some Assembly seats even more than a year before the polls. In the middle of this month the AICC has sent a communiqué to the MPCC asking it to stop such exercise being held mainly in East Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills districts.
The AICC had issued the directive following reports that some lower party units have held ‘sham elections’ at the block level and committed tickets even to some non-Congress candidates. Questions had also been raised about the selection of candidates based on rampant favoritism by some vested interests.
It may be reminded that some Block Congress Committees had held ‘elections’ in certain constituencies in Khasi-Jaintia Hills like Mawryngkneng, Shella and Pynursla to select ‘acceptable candidates’ from amongst the aspirants. The ‘elections’ in Garo Hills are expected to be conducted in February.