Pala to be Cong candidate
New Delhi: Former Union minister and sitting Lok Sabha member Vincent H. Pala is likely to be given renomination as the Congress candidate in the Shillong seat, AICC sources said in Delhi on Tuesday.
Pala met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence during the day, but he refused to divulge any details of the meeting. “I will contest only if I get the nomination, I will wait for tomorrow,” he said.
It is understood that Pala’s candidature was opposed by Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma himself and a few other MLAs who thought that the former did not have much of a chance to win. Most of the sitting Congress MPs have been re-nominated for the Lok Sabha polls and 35 per cent of the candidates in the list are below the age of 50. Pala fits on both accounts, the sources pointed out.
Pala’s detractors lost their case by recommending the name of Ronnie V Lyngdoh rather late in the day and then championing the cause of John Kharsiingh at the eleventh hour.
The silence of AICC on the reported goof up of names of the Congress nominee for the Tura seat added to speculations during the day.
According to Central Election Committee sources in Congress, the name of Zenith in the official list was supposed to have been replaced by that of Daryl in the Tura seat, but there was still no official word from AICC during the day.