NEW DELHI, Aug 31: Appointment of three-time Lok Sabha member Vincent H. Pala as president of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee seems to have infused much-needed boost to the fledgling party in Meghalaya, but the question of the party’s comeback in the 2023 Assembly elections in the state will heavily rest on how the former Union minister takes his party leaders and workers along.
Following a record two-term consecutive rule for seven years under the leadership of Mukul Sangma, the Congress lost the subsequent Assembly polls in 2018, but its downfall had begun much earlier. Most of its senior leaders starting from DD Lapang, Prestone Tynsong, Ngaitlang Dhar and Sniawbhalang Dhar and a host of others had already left the party to seek greener pastures with the NPP.
Former CM Mukul himself lost to Agatha Sangma in the consequent Lok Sabha polls from Tura and the party also suffered a string of defeats in the Assembly bypolls, barring Ampati, a Congress bastion. The party under Celestine Lyngdoh, who himself lost the polls, remained in a dormant stage till a group of party legislators, mostly from Khasi-Jaintia Hills, called for a change of the party presidentship.
After sleeping over the demand for over a year, the All India Congress Committee appointed Pala as the MPCC chief besides appointing Ampareen Lyngdoh, Marthon Sangma and James Lyngdoh as working presidents.
Though there were murmurs of dissent in Khasi Hills and subdued disapproval in the Garo Hills, Congress leaders have accepted Pala despite his lack of seniority and experience in state politics.
Mukul, known as the “strong man” in the state Congress, has kept the government on tenterhooks on various issues but has not been able to regroup the party. Most of the Congress leaders and former Cabinet ministers who joined the NPP bandwagon during Mukul’s seven-year-old rule were clear in their decision not to return to the party as long as Mukul remained at the helm.
Pala has started his innings on a positive note by extending an open invitation to all former Congress leaders who have left the party and are now with the NPP or the UDP. His old-time supporter and former legislator, PN Syiem and party veteran, RG Lyngdoh are almost back in the fold while others might follow suit as the Assembly election draws near, Pala claimed.
But Pala has ruled out any hasty regaining of power by bringing down the NPP-led MDA Government. Such victory will not have the full mandate of the people, he had said, hinting that he would wait for the Assembly polls.
It is a quirk in politics that Congress could have formed the government with the UDP in 2018 when it emerged as the single largest party winning 21 seats. But a section within the party, opposed to Mukul, put a stumbling block to the extent of helping the NPP in indirectly leading the MDA coalition.
A section of the Congress leaders was harping on slicing out the major coalition UDP from the MDA which had been rejected by the regional party itself. To scuttle such possibility by his own rivals within the party though remote, Pala has openly criticised the regional party for its “all-round inefficiency and large-scale corruption”.
It is ironic that most of the ruling NPP leaders including its ministers cutting across party lines regularly meet Pala whenever they visit New Delhi. Most of them have also congratulated him albeit privately on taking over the opposition Congress party in the state.
Now all that remains to be seen is how a truncated Congress confronts the NPP in the 2023 electoral battle. As it appears, the new state Congress chief is ready to wait for the final game rather than rocking the NPP boat which holds many former Congress leaders and even more well-wishers!
