By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Denial of ticket to some prominent Congress aspirants seems to be having serious repercussions within the party ahead of the upcoming Assembly election.
Majority of the Congress party workers at the grassroots level are unhappy over the ‘manipulation’ and ‘political game’ in the allotment of the party tickets.
Most of the tickets have been allotted to close aides of Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma, MPCC president DD Lapang and former Union Minister of State Vincent H Pala while neglecting the recommendations made by Block Congress Committees (BCC) of various constituencies, resulting in many aspirants jumping into the fray as Independent candidates and gearing up to contest against their party’s official candidates.
Meanwhile, in a fresh setback to the Congress, party supporters from 44 out of the 47 polling stations in Mawshynrut constituency in West Khasi Hills have decided to support former State Mahila Congress general secretary Pelcy Snaitang, who is contesting as an Independent candidate after being denied the party ticket.
The State Mahila Congress general secretary had lost the race for the party ticket to Pala’s close aide Methodius Dkhar.
The Congress supporters including the president and general secretary of the various units took the decision to resign en masse from the party in protest against the AICC decision to deny the ticket to Snaitang.
Besides Mawshynrut, the party has been hit by similar setbacks in several others constituencies like Shella, Rambrai-Jyrngam, Mawthadraishan, Umroi, Gambegre, Baghmara, Bajengdoba and Kharkutta where the ignored ticket aspirants have thrown in their hats as Independents.
