SHILLONG: The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting held on Friday evening skipped the basic demand of change of leadership by the dissidents, which indicates that the problem within Congress will linger on till the intervention of the AICC president Sonia Gandhi.
Unlike the past, the CLP in its meeting held on Friday evening did not express faith in the leadership of Chief Minister Mukul Sangma as according to him, the meeting did not discuss the issue of change of leadership.
Summing up the post-CLP meeting press conference, the Chief Minister, who was otherwise silent all throughout the briefing, said, “Issue of confidence or no confidence did not come up in the meeting. The grievances of legislators are off shoot of certain misunderstanding. We will continue to address these concerns”.
There was no final word on the issue of change of leadership in the State Congress after the CLP meeting as the AICC General Secretary in-charge Meghalaya Luizinho Faleiro, the MPPC president DD Lapang and the Chief Minister made only cryptic utterance on the demand of the dissidents to have a change of leadership.
When repeatedly asked on the fate of the Chief Minister, the AICC leader, who was not so confident, uttered , “Mukul Sangma was the Chief Minister, is the Chief Minister and will be the Chief Minister”
According to Faleiro, the demand for change of leadership is a figment of imagination which, however, contradicts the meeting of the dissident groups led by senior Congress leader SC Marak with Sonia Gandhi .
Faleiro went on to add that the statements, made by the dissident leaders in the media, were misinterpreted.
At one point of time, Faleiro said that CLP meeting was very intimate family meeting “and every one spoke their hearts out and the outcome was beautiful as senior leaders have given various suggestions to avoid misunderstanding and the best mechanism is to talk to each other”.
He also said that differences o f the legislators are over the day today functioning of the Government and not over the issue of change of leadership.
Faliero said that the minutes of the CLP meeting would be presented to Gandhi .
The MPCC President Lapang said that though there were differences in the Congress, the part y will not break.
All the Congress legislators except Cabinet Minister Deborah Marak was present in the CLP meeting.
A party source, said that the AICC may send a senior party observer to the State soon to address the various concerns raised by the dissidents.