NONGPOH/SHILLONG: Ticket allocation is creating rifts in the Congress, which is already grappling with defection and internal bickering. This has prompted several members in Ri Bhoi’s Jirang constituency and South Garo Hills’ Chokpot to resign.
In Jirang, the Congress got a jolt with members of the block committee, Jirang Mahila Congress and Ri Bhoi District Youth Congress Committee deciding to quit the party on Sunday over poll ticket that has been given to Witness Syngkli. The members said they felt “betrayed” by the high command. Among the prominent members who quit are the district committee head and the vice-president Rajesh Lapang and Sunmonn D Marak, respectively, Jirang unit president Najim Kharmalki,
General secretary JP Marbaniang, vice president Jemberson Marak, Mahila unit president and general secretary Twassibon Lapang and Holy Jahrin, President and General Secretary of Jirang Assembly Youth Congress President and General Secretary, Cleverson Shabong and Sanjeev Sangma. All these leaders have pledged to support Badhok Nongmalieh in the upcoming Assembly elections. Three candidates had earlier applied for the Congress ticket from Jirang, which included Nongmalieh, Syngkli and Sarita Laitphlang. However, the JBCC and majority of the polling booths unit recommended only the name of Nongmalieh as the Congress candidate from Jirang.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Kharmalki said the Jirang Block Congress Committee condemned the leaders of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee under Celestine Lyngdoh as president and Vincent H Pala as working president for their “autocratic attitude”.
“Lyngdoh and Pala were involved in manipulating the names of the candidates from Jirang constituency by allotting the party ticket to Witness Syngkli who was not being recommended by the party workers at the grass root level and the JBCC,” Kharmalki said, adding that the MPCC leaders had violated party guidelines.
In South Garo Hills, members of the block Congress committee from the constituency resigned en masse after the ticket was allotted to Lazarus Sangma, who has been accused by party workers as an outsider.
The grassroots workers of the party in Chokpot had been rooting for local leader Willie D Shira to represent the party in Chokpot.
According to the rebels, over 100 members of the Mahila Congress, Block and Youth Congress members have resigned in protest over the ticket allocation to Lazarus Sangma.
Those who have walked away from the party include the Block Congress Committee chairman, its vice president, youth president and Mahila vice president amongst others.
“We have been working for the growth of the Congress in Chokpot led by the BCC president, Willie D Shira for the past few years and had hoped the AICC and MPCC would see what has been attained. However their decision to give the ticket to Lazarus is wrong and the elections will prove us right,” claim the rebel workers of the party. “We are unhappy at the decision of the AICC and MPCC as we had sought a local candidate who understands local problems better but were denied. We have thus decided to quit the party and support our candidate who has a better chance of winning,” said L Ch Sangma, the BCC chief adviser.
In Jirang, Kharmalki said if the right candidate who has the potential to win the election was denied a party’s ticket, it is of no use to just have a name in the party that doesn’t have any discipline and concerns for the voice of its workers at the grassroots level. On the link of Shillong MP with BJP, Kharmalki also confessed that eight months back, the Shillong MP had asked him personally if Witness Syngkli wanted to contest from BJP ticket, and replied that he had to ask Syngkli if he rejects or accepts the offer. (Contd on P-10)