Rowell hails Chief Minister’s performance
SHILLONG: The Opposition leader in the State Assembly Donkupar Roy has asked the Ministers in the ‘nervous’ Congress led MUA-II coalition to resign first before demanding removal of Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
Though the present rumbling is an internal issue of the Congress, the Ministers should follow some principle as they are not supposed to raise the issue of change of leadership while remaining in the ministry, Roy told reporters here on Monday.
According to him, the Ministers are appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister and hence if they want to raise any issue, it would be ideal for them to resign first before doing so.
Roy pointed out that the Congress is nervous after the debacle of the party in Tura and the poor performance in Assam, even as he added that the party fears that the same would be repeated in 2018.
“The days of Congress are numbered, hence the party legislators are nervous as the government can collapse anytime”, he said
According to Roy, the aggrieved legislators should go to the Governor demanding a special session to decide the issue of leadership.
To a question whether the Chief Minister should resign owning moral responsibility, Roy said that it was upto him to decide on the matter.
The UDP leader said that the present crisis should not linger long affecting the development of the state as the officers would not be willing to work in a chaotic situation.
The former Chief Minister also said that the party is not interested in breaking the Congress to take advantage of the situation.
Rowell pats Mukul: As the dissidence is reported to be brewing in within Congress, Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Rowell Lyngdoh has come out in support of the Chief Minister saying “the Chief Minister is performing very well”.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Monday, Lyngdoh claimed that nobody has discussed anything about dissidence against the Chief Minister with him.
Downplaying the reported dissidence, he claimed that the party is united despite the Tura by-poll debacle.
Stating that the all the MLAs had jointly elected Mukul Sangma as their leader, he said that he should remain as the leader until and unless there is an issue against him.
Meanwhile on the other hand, a senior Congress leader on the request of anonymity said that the party is injured after the debacle in Tura.
“We are just introspecting and licking out wounds at the moment,” the Congress leader said .