By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president DD Lapang on Saturday asserted that the party was working very hard to achieve the goal of forming the next Government on its own.
“We would like to see a single party Government this time,” Lapang told reporters here.
Lapang also stated that it would be difficult at this juncture to estimate whether dissidence in the party caused by denial to party ticket to many of the aspirants and their subsequent decision to contest as Independent candidates or from other political parties would affect the Congress performance in the February 23 election.
“Personally I do not see any threat since it might help the party nominee in many places due to the presence of these dissident candidates,” the former Chief Minister said, while reiterating that dissidence had cropped up owing to the fact that there were so many aspirants for the Congress ticket.
Admitting to the infighting within the Congress ranks, the MPCC president claimed that the problem was not restricted to the Congress alone.
“The problem of infighting is prevalent in all the political parties including the UDP; but since the Congress is a big party the problem appears to be worse than what it is,” Lapang said.
He, however, ruled out any setback to the party in the election in view of the infighting.
Commenting on reports that tickets were awarded to close aides of a section of top leaders of the party, Lapang denied the same saying that the AICC had adopted certain yardsticks before allotting the party tickets.
When asked if Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma would stake claims for the position of CLP leader after the election, Lapang said he (Dr Sangma) continues to be the leader of the CLP.
Lapang also refrained from making any comments on his possible comeback as the Chief Minister, saying, “The primary focus of everyone at the moment is to win the election.”
To a query on the number of seats the Congress was expected to win, Lapang said he was not an astrologer to make any predictions.
“We are looking to win as many seats as possible,” he added.
Asked about the presence of so many camps in the Congress, the MPCC president said, “People in the market are still talking about this. I am surprised that even the media believes such reports.”