From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI: Congress MLAs might not leave en masse soon as claimed by Shillong MP Vincent Pala, but there is disquiet over continued drubbings in the polls since it lost power in the hill state and inaction by the party higher ups to stem the rot.
The frail party legislators are waiting for the magic number of 13 to cause a split and avoid anti-defection law, sources said. Latest reports said that they are now 12 and just need one more MLA to go the whole hog which, however, is to be verified.
It is also difficult for the rebels since out of 19 MLAs four belong to CLP leader Mukul Sangma and his family.
Others include his few die-hard supporters and among the legislators, there is margin of only two or three MLAs to cause a split which is extremely difficult.
But more than the magic number, there is a difference among the Congress legislators where they will join as the choices are more confusing than the options. Bunch of them wants to join the NPP as many of their counterparts had done earlier and enjoying plum ministerial berths under the new alignment but the berths in the ministry are already full and there is no possibility of any vacancy in near future.
Some more are for a bigger game plan and want to join the BJP which is expanding its base in the Northeastern region, the sources said. But there is a second thought since the saffron party’s ideology is juxtaposed to the core issues in the region like beef ban and CAB.
Few more are willing to jump into UDP bandwagon but there is constant tussle among the regional parties, including the ruling ones which is a dampener. The choice of the Congress dissidents would be to together join in one of the three parties or form a new party which again is a risky task.
The last option is to resign from the Assembly and fight by-elections like in Karnataka but this is also not an option for the stifled legislators.
Defeat of former cabinet minister MM Danggo despite all preemptive actions is an eye-opener for them.
Amid such situation, Pala, during his last long stay in the state capital, tried to pacify the rebels with all his force but his efforts were temporary. The AICC team which went from here and toured the region, including Meghalaya, also could not help much.
Incidentally, unlike other Congress leaders, Pala is not in a hurry since his Lok Sabha polls are still away. The three-time MP is also in good relations with all other parties — regional ones, NPP and even BJP.
Pala is desperately trying to keep the party as a united force since he is eyeing chief minister’s post in case Congress comes back to power in the state. With most top Congress leaders leaving the party, he does not have many potential rivals in Khasi Hills except Mukul.
The main grievance of the disgruntled MLAs is the back-to- back defeats of the party in many polls in state.
The AICC strongman Luizinho Faleiro tried to keep the top leaders engaged by appointing them as secretaries in neighbouring Assam, Mizoram and Nagaland. But the party is in worse position even in these states with little scope of revival.
Former minister Ampareen Lyngdoh has already expressed her displeasure over the party’s state of affairs in public. Others, including Charles Pyngrope are only waiting in the wings.
At the national level too, there is no visible action on the ground. Whatever gain the party made in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the Assembly polls were lost in Lok Sabha elections.
The case of Maharashtra where the indecision of the party cost the government formation with help of NCP seems to be another example of party’s inaction and dithering.