By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Congress-UDP marriage seems like it has hit rough weather. The Congress is likely to take a view on whether to continue with the alliance which is getting more brittle by the day. There is growing discontent among the Congress legislators over the decision of the UDP to back former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma for the Presidential Post.
The Congress MLAs are unhappy with the obdurate stance taken by the UDP in rejecting the request of Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma to reconsider their decision of supporting Sangma.
Despite repeated requests on the part Chief Minister to back the UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the Presidential post, the UDP had remained adamant and even refused to send a delegation to meet Mukherjee who came to Guwahati recently to meet the political leaders of the region.
Congress sources on Monday said that pressure is mounting on the Chief Minister to break off ties with the UDP as the Congress legislators feel betrayed by the decision of the party to cock a snook over the party’s request to support Mukherjee for the presidential post.
Congress sources indicated that there are possibilities that the majority of the Congress MLAs would demand the snapping off of ties with the UDP during the CLP meeting scheduled for J
uly 18.
However, some in the Congress also wondered if the Chief Minister would succumb to the demands of the party legislators considering that the he might need the support of the UDP after the 2013 Assembly election to form the Government.
“If Dr Mukul succumbs to the pressure and decides to snap ties with the UDP it would be a blessing in disguise for the party since it would provide them an alibi for the upcoming Assembly election,” sources said.
Till date, the UDP has been maintaining that they are supporting the Congress led Government for the sake of stability despite maintaining that they are not happy with the performance of the Congress-led MUA Government.