NEW DELHI, May 7: The electoral losses in Assam and Kerala and decimation in West Bengal is likely to affect the fortunes of the Congress in Meghalaya, where assembly polls are scheduled in 2023.
The victory of the BJP in Assam has kindled the hopes of the party in Tripura and its ‘bigger’ partners in Meghalaya and Nagaland. In Assam, the Congress appeared to have no answer to the strategies of BJP’s master strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma, also the party’s pointsman for the region via the North East Democratic Alliance.
The shrinking base of the Congress has also put the regional parties in a spot, particularly in Meghalaya.
But Congress MP Vincent Pala put up a brave front. “What happens in Assam does not normally impact Meghalaya, which has its own identity and issues,” he said, admitting distribution of ticket and the degree of homework done by the party leaders would be the factors for Congress.
Ironically, Pala has faced stiff opposition from within his party before every election in Meghalaya. Many of his chosen candidates lost in a few assembly polls because of internal squabbles.
The fight within played out in the last assembly election when Congress failed to form the government despite emerging as the single largest party. This was reportedly because a few party leaders did not want Mukul Sangma to be at the helm again.
Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura are due by February 2023. The Manipur polls are slated for 2022.
The poor show of the Congress in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry is likely to affect the morale of the party workers unless some drastic steps are taken to lift the spirits.
Congress leaders in Meghalaya would particularly be wary of the party’s loss in Puducherry. Former AICC general secretary in charge of Meghalaya, V. Narayanasamy had shepherded the party’s Puducherry campaign.
The Congress headquarters in Delhi continued to wear a deserted look almost a week after the election results were declared, but is still no demand for a change of leadership. Neither party president Sonia Gandhi nor son Rahul Gandhi has given any indication of letting others take control.
Taking to The Shillong Times, a Meghalaya-based Congress leader told echoed Pala in saying the outcome in Assam would not touch his state unlike in the past. But he was wary of the BJP’s agenda of a Congress-free Northeast with Sarma, a former Congressman, as its driver.
While with Congress, Sarma was behind the fall of Donkupar Roy’s non-Congress coalition government that former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A. Sangma had helped stitch. Sarma’s manoeuvres brought back the Congress government headed by D.D. Lapang, who is now with Sangma’s NPP.
The Assam Minister and NEDA convenor was also the architect of the present coalition government, helping NPP forge an alliance with United Democratic Party and other regional parties besides the BJP. The coalition has continued despite hiccups.
If that were not enough, Sarma plotted the BJP coup in Arunachal Pradesh, toppled the Congress government in Manipur, ensured the ouster of Congress in Mizoram – the ruling Mizo National Front there is a constituent of NEDA – and that of the Left Front in Tripura.
The NEDA factor could give some sleepless nights to Congress leaders in Meghalaya with less than two years to go for the next assembly polls.
