Cong leaders put question mark over party’s prospects
SHILLONG: With the State Assembly elections just one and half year away, several leaders of the ruling Congress feel that it will not be easy this time and the party will have to toil hard to retain its position as the single largest party.
A section of the state Congress legislators and leaders are unhappy with chief minister Mukul Sangma. The dissident group feels that since Sangma is facing an anti-incumbency challenge the central leadership should initiate changes- a cabinet reshuffle, for instance-before assembly elections in 2018.
They liken the situation to that of Assam, where former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, facing a three-term anti-incumbency led the Congress to assembly elections this year and the party was trounced by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Now question is will the Congress party, after being in power for nearly seven years, be able to surmount anti-incumbency in the 2018 polls?
That the Congress is on a bad wicket is fairly obvious. Some State Congress leaders on the request of anonymity said that any party which has been in power for so many years has to face strong incumbency.
“The party now seriously needs to revive itself otherwise it will be too late,” they feel.
According to them, non-Congress parties would pose a big challenge before the Congress in 2018 polls.
Besides dissidence and incumbency, the ban on coal mining in Meghalaya and restriction on setting up of liquor shops in the state might work against Congress’ prospects, they said.
It is learnt that some Congress leaders are in double mind — whether to contest on Congress ticket or contest from other political party.
Even the BJP state president Shibun Lyngdoh recently asserted that several Congress leaders had sent feelers to join the saffron party with a condition that they should be given tickets to contest the 2018 elections.
