Luizinho Faleiro, is known as a strong man in Congress politics as far the North East is concerned. He was in charge of Meghalaya and during his tenure DD Lapang and then Dr Mukul Sangma became Chief Ministers. Faleiro was later replaced by Dr Dhaniram Shandil. But Dr Shandil too made way for Maharashtra politician Mukul Wasnik since he contested Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls and later became a cabinet minister there.
Now the clock has turned full circle. Faleiro is back again in charge of not only Meghalaya but all the NE states barring Assam. In recent times, no single person was given charge of the whole North East.
It was a different matter that he was already in charge of the then election bound Tripura and Nagaland, Manipur and Sikkim. Again poll-bound Mizoram is in his pocket and even though Congress lost badly in Tripura and Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh has been added to his cap.
During state elections Faleiro also successfully handled elections in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. In between Faleiro also handled other states like Karnataka where his party came back to power after a long time trouncing the only southern BJP ruled state, which skyrocketed his image in the party hierarchy.
In Shillong, Faleio will address a meeting of the MPCC and all district Presidents. He will also hold meetings with the frontal organisations. There will be a meeting with the newly created manifesto committee and coordination committee of the party at the state level. This time the focus will be implementation of the Food Security Bill in the State.
Before leaving for a visit to Meghalaya, his first in second incarnation, Faleiro spoke with The Shillong Times correspondent CK Nayak in his chamber at AICC.
ST: You have returned as general secretary in-charge Meghalaya after a gap of three years. How do you feel?
Faleiro: When I took charge of poll bound states of Tripura and Nagaland in addition to Manipur and Sikkim, our party was running a stable Government in Meghalaya under the strong leadership of Dr Mukul Sangma.
This stability coupled with massive developmental work brought the Congress back to power again, this time almost on its own and with a historic majority. I feel happy about this.
ST: Why did you shift from Meghalaya in the first place?
Faleiro: When I left Meghalaya, our party was in a stable condition. But we were facing challenges in Left-ruled Tripura and DAN-ruled Nagaland. Manipur was rife with disturbances and Congress was trying to come back in the Himalayan state of Sikkim after a long gap. We could not wrest power in Tripura and Nagaland but we did whatever best could have been done under the circumstances.
But you see that Congress retained power with bigger majority in all the three states I handled (Aruachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram). In the first two states I got 42 seats each from the 60-Member houses, a lucky number for me. I also got 32 seats in the 40-Member Mizoram Assembly. All are higher margin than the preceding Houses.
ST: What will be your strategy for Meghalaya?
Faleiro: We have just got comfortable majority in Meghalaya. The entire focus will be on development of the hill state for which the people have voted Congress back to power with a bigger majority.
As you know, Meghalaya is a beautiful state with both rich talent and vast mineral resources. The hill state is also a tourist destination, educational hub and centre for art, culture and sports.
My effort will be to make the state an internal hub for the three specialties and establish some landmark projects. Once this is done, Meghalaya can become one of the advanced states in the whole country and not only in the region. There can be international convention centre at Shillong since it is easily accessible now and has an excellent climatic condition for holding top national and international meeting and events.
ST: Do you still feel that your party is riddled with factionalism even now?
Falerio: No. Not at all. You see Dr Sangma was unanimously elected as leader of the Congress Legislature party. There will be stability. And one important thing is that in this Government we do not have to depend on regional parties.
Congress as a party has a vibrant democracy within where differences of opinions are respected. Ultimately, everybody respects the party President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President, Mr Rahul Gandhi.
Secondly, the new ministry is both a mixture of old hands and new faces. There are as many as three women ministers out of four who got elected.
This is women empowerment.
Thirdly, you should also see some recent political developments. To begin with the lone non-tribal MLA Mr A T Mondal has been unanimously elected as Speaker. Wansuk Syiem was elected as first woman Rajya Sabha Member form the State uncontested. These are indications of smooth functioning for the party as well as the Government. Both the party and the Government are doing very well.
ST: Will your party come back to power in Mizoram?
Faleiro: Surely. Congress will retain power in Mizoram. It will even get more seats. You should know that Congress went to elections in Mizoram with three main poll planks- scientific land use, zero tolerance to corruption and infrastructure development.
During this regime over 1.20 lakh tribal Jhumia families were resettled. This gave the poor and nomadic tribals assured income and saved the environment.
This scheme will now be repeated in the hill states with greater vigour and bigger magnitude because of the population pattern in other states.
ST: What are your expectations for the two Lok Sabha seats in Meghalaya – Shillong and Tura?
Faleiro: We will certainly retain Shillong Lok Sabha seat. This time Tura will be ours too. The massive mandate our party got in Garo Hills in the recently concluded Assembly polls is a pointer.
Even the main rival NPP’s Conard Sangma (former leader of the opposition and Punro’s son) lost so also former MP Thomas Sangma. NPP was decimated to just two seats, the worst ever performance by Purno in his whole political career.