SHILLONG: The All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of NE states, Luizinho Faleiro, has brushed aside speculation that party MLAs in the state want a change of leadership in CLP.
Faleiro, who is on a visit to Shillong, told reporters on Thursday he was not aware of any demand for change of leadership. “I have not heard anything like that and even the AICC secretary who came here recently has not told me anything,” he said.
Denying the claims of ruling NPP that the Congress will be wiped out in Meghalaya in the 2023 Assembly polls, he said that the party which is a ‘B team’ of the BJP has not done its homework properly. He pointed out that the Congress secured more votes in majority of the Assembly segments in the last Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Faleiro also denied reports that some Congress MLAs were in touch with UDP to switch allegience.
Admitting that the Northeastern states were once a stronghold of Congress, he, however, added that the vote share of the party in Meghalaya has increased from 28.5 per cent to 47.38 per cent.
He said that even in Nagaland, the vote share of the Congress has gone up to 48.11 per cent from 2.1 per cent while its share in Tripura has gone up to 25.38 per cent from 1.8 per cent.
“People are the masters and we have to serve them better,” he said.
When asked if the Congress would establish contact with regional parties in the state to form a new government, he said that it is not about forming the government. He said a government has to fulfill the aspirations of the people of the state which has not happened in Meghalaya for the past one year.
He said that he has come to Shillong to thank the people for supporting the Congress in the last elections and the party officer bearers, workers and MLAs for their hard work which ensured Congress won the Shillong Lok Sabha seat.
The AICC chief during his two-day visit would also meet frontal organisations of the party, block committees and work out a road map so that the party can re-organise and consolidate itself at the booth level.
CLP meeting held
A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party was held here on Thursday. However, several party leaders, including CLP leader Mukul Sangma, Zenith Sangma besides some MLAs did not attend the meeting due to other engagements.
