- Choice of candidate from Tura narrows to two
- Thursday’s meet deferred
From CK Nayak
New Delhi: Intense infighting in the ruling Congress is delaying the selection of candidate for the high-profile Shillong Lok Sabha seat whereas the choice for the Tura parliamentary seat now seems to have boiled down to two aspirants – one the brother of the Chief Minister and the other the grandson of a former Chief Minister.
Since the Shillong seat is being represented by a Congressman (Vincent H Pala), it was, earlier, widely expected that the sitting MP would have a smooth sail as far as allotment of the party ticket was concerned, based on the ‘sitting getting’ principle. Congress, emboldened by its resounding success in the 2013 Assembly elections in Garo Hills, where veteran politician and NPP chief Purno A Sangma suffered a setback, was eyeing to add the Tura Lok Sabha seat in its kitty as well.
Congress has not been able to win the Tura parliamentary seat since 1999.
However, Pala’s prospects of being re-considered for Congress ticket suffered a staggering blow after a group of legislators fielded Government Chief Whip and Mylliem MLA Ronnie V Lyngdoh as a contender for the ticket even after the initial process of filing of applications was complete.
The MPCC Election Committee has already submitted the names of four contenders, including Ronnie, for the ticket from Shillong seat, along with eight others for the Tura seat, to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) for final consideration.
A section of AICC is also unhappy over the late entry of Ronnie in the fray. “If Ronnie Lyngdoh is given a ticket and he wins, there has to be an Assembly bye-poll in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region where the Congress did not perform that well in the last Assembly polls,” an AICC source said, adding that the position of the party in Khasi-Jaintia Hills has not improved in the wake of the long agitation over the issue of ILP.
“Even though the party may somehow manage to retain the Shillong seat, there is no guarantee that the party will win the bye-election, if it is necessitated, since Congress is not expected to do well at the national level either,” sources said.
“The regional parties in the State might give a divided Congress a run for its money,” sources said, adding that a loss would be a big embarrassment for the party and would act as a booster for the fragile opposition in Meghalaya.
It is still not clear why Ronnie entered the fray even though he had not applied for the ticket earlier. Party observers feel that some Congress legislators who might have been offended by the fact that the sitting MP (Pala) did not help them and other Congress candidates during the 2013 Assembly polls, might have grouped together and fielded the Government Chief Whip (Ronnie), even going to the extent of risking a bye-election despite the fact that the Congress is two shy of a simple majority on its own in the Meghalaya Assembly.
Congress has 29 members, two short of the magic number of 31 in the sixty-member House, but enjoys a comfortable position with the support of NCP legislators and several independents.
The observers argue that because of Pala’s alleged anti-party activities, Congress could not put up a good show in Khasi-Jaintia Hills compared to its earlier position.
Pala has already denied the charges several times.
Some quarters believe that the ‘fight’ is actually between Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma and MPCC president DD Lapang, an allegation on which neither has reacted.
Till date there has never been a direct confrontation between Pala and either Dr Sangma or Lapang, but the former Union Minister remains a key player behind the scene in all major political developments in Meghalaya, be it the State Assembly or the autonomous district councils.
Not willing to risk anything, the AICC recently deputed its secretary-in-charge of Meghalaya, Vijay Laxmi Sadho to hold consultations with all on the party’s choice of candidate. The AICC functionary has already submitted her report on the controversy surrounding the candidates.
The Congress high command will now take a final call on the candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats from among the 12 candidates in fray.
There are four aspirants for the party ticket from the Shillong seat – sitting Lok Sabha member Vincent H Pala, former State Assembly Speaker Charles Pyngrope, Co-Chairman of the State Planning Board John F Kharshiing and Government Chief Whip Ronnie V Lyngdoh who threw in his hat at the last minute.
A total of nine aspirants, including a lady, have applied for the Congress ticket from the Tura seat.
The eight candidates who are vying for the party ticket for the Tura seat include Cabinet Minister and Rangsakona MLA Zenith Sangma, Parliamentary Secretary Winnerson D Sangma, former MLA Adolf Lu Hitler R Marak, former Chief Executive Member of the GHADC Polycarp K Marak, Youth Congress general secretary Richard M Marak, retired District Industries Officer DK Arengh, Daryl William Cheran Momin and senior Congress leader and the lone woman contender Arlene Mayne N Sangma.
Meanwhile, in a late development the scheduled meeting of the AICC on Thursday to deliberate on the candidate from the Tura seat has been deferred.
Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma, MPCC president DD Lapang, AICC general secretary in charge of Meghalaya Luizinho Faleiro and secretary Vijay Laxmi Sadho, among others, were slated to participate in the meeting. The meeting was to debate over the Tura seat where the choice of candidate has been narrowed down to two – Mukul’s brother Zenith Sangma and Daryl William Cheran Momin, the grandson of Meghalaya’s first Chief Minister Captain Williamson A Sangma.