Nongstoin debacle
From CK Nayak
New Delhi: Perturbed over defeat after defeat in elections in Meghalaya, a subdued AICC on Wednesday attributed its rout in the Nongstoin Assembly by election to wrong selection of candidate by the election committee of the State Congress.
The State election committee did not pay any heed to the opinion of the 36 Block Congress units out of a total of 39 in the Nongstoin Assembly segment who had opposed nomination of Gabriel Wahlang. They in fact wanted the now suspended leader and former Health Minister, Advisor Pariong, as the candidate, AICC sources said on Wednesday.
When questioned why the AICC did not ensure selection of the right candidate, an AICC functionary on condition of anonymity, said the high command does not interfere in by elections to the State Assembly. It is for the local party unit, the PCC president and the chief minister or the CLP leader of the State to take the call in such cases, he said.
Incidentally, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has already attributed the defeat to rivalry within the party. MPCC president D.D. Lapang, who was not in support of Gabriel Wahlang and wanted Advisor Pariong as the candidate, is coming to the meet the AICC leaders here next week, followed by the chief minister, the AICC leader said.
Both Lapang and Mukul who have already informed the party about the debacle will have to do lot of explaining to the AICC, the sources added.
But the AICC is at loss with the defeat coming close on the heels of party debacle in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council polls which was its strong bastion even a year ago. Losses in both Garo Hills and Khasi-Jaintia Hills have put a question mark on the party’s ability to catch votes in the next Assembly polls which is about two years away.
The chief minister’s comments about rivalry within the party got credence with even Lok Sabha MP, Vincent H Pala, not campaigning for the party candidate even for a day although he was in Shillong. When contacted Pala said he had landed in Shillong to help the party candidate but his name was not there in the list of campaigners even though the seat falls under his Parliament segment.
Normally in Congress the MP under whose constituency the assembly seat falls is consulted before selection of the candidate. But in this case the candidate was selected and Pala had no knowledge about it, party sources said.
Mukul Sangma however camped in the constituency for days and deployed other cabinet ministers, parliamentary secretaries and party leaders for the party’s nominee who had his full backing. In a seemingly tit for tat situation in Congress, Mukul also did not campaign for a single day for Pala as the latter was not his choice for the Lok Sabha polls.
The AICC also admitted that the elections for the Nongstoin seat was done in haste and the party had no time to reorganize. But the AICC did not buy the theory of sympathy wave since the winner Diosstarness Jyndiang was not a family member of the legendary Hoping Stone Lyngdoh whose demise caused the polls.
But AICC did admit that the rebellion by Advisor Pariong had an impact on the party’s show since it cut into the party’s votes.
Though Pariong left the HSPDP and contested against his mentor in the last assembly he got good votes and could have managed this time in the absence of Hoping Stone or any of his family members, the AICC confided.