SHILLONG: Allaying fears that the Congress will be affected if the sitting congress MLAs desert and join other parties before Assembly elections, Congress Chief in Meghalaya, DD Lapang, on Saturday asserted that there was no dearth of capable and potential leaders in Congress and the party would contest the 2018 Assembly elections from all the 60 seats.
“Those who don’t want to be with us are free to decide their future,” Lapang added.
On being asked if the perceived desertion of MLAs would affect the party, Lapang said he had no idea whether it will affect Congress or not but Congress would definitely from the Government in 2018.
“We are sure that any political party, be it national or regional, cannot beat Congress and we will be the single largest party,” Lapang said.
The state Congress chief was also quick to add that Congress would be in the Government either on its own or with support of some other parties.
Earlier, Lapang reiterated that the party did not feel necessary to identify those legislators who would be deserting party saying the party will distribute application forms for applying for party tickets from the last week of August. “Those who will take the form will be with Congress and at the same time it will also be known who will not contest the election from Congress ticket since they will not take the form,” Lapang said.
Meanwhile, the senior leader also said that the party had started it’s preparations for the elections a year ago and party and so the party was alert and functional with an eye in the election.
When drawn to allegation of the BJP that there was no development in the state during the Congress rule, Lapang said that people of the State would give an appropriate reply to BJP in the elections.