By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Congress has indirectly welcomed the GNLA chairman Champion R Sangma’s offer to support the party in the 2013 Assembly elections as the AICC secretary in-charge Meghalaya Sanjay Bapna on Wednesday said, “We are in a free country, anybody can support any party.”
Bapna said this while replying to a query on the statement of the GNLA chief. He, however, did not take anybody’s name. The Congress party has been in the eye of the storm, after the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) chief stated his “boys” would support the party during the 2013 Assembly elections.
When asked if money would play a key role in the upcoming elections as several businessmen and coal barons have applied for the party tickets, he tried to downplay it by saying “majority of those who have applied for the party ticket are grass root-level members of the party. I do not think we have come across any businessmen who have applied for the party ticket”. Interestingly, Bapna’s statement contradicts the ground reality. As per the information available, a large number of coal barons and businessmen have applied for Congress ticket. Among them are Ngaitlang Lyngdoh (Umroi), sitting Congress legislator from Rymbai Nehlang Lyngdoh, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma’s wife Dikanchi D Shira.
