SHILLONG, Oct 1: Make or break leadership rivalry in Congress in Meghalaya intensified on Friday after an abortive move for a split in the legislature party and merge with TMC came unstuck. In a day filled with racy behind-the-scene moves in the party fuelled speculations of political topsy turvy, it was clear that Mukul’s move to orchestrate precipitate action came a cropper.
This has given his detractors who are unwilling to take the TMC bait, courage to make counter offensive. A section of Congress MLAs will be pressing for the removal of Mukul Sangma as the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader for trying to split the party.
“He (Mukul) had denied the first time of meeting TMC leaders. But now it has proven that he was trying to split the party by approaching MLAs to align with the TMC,” one Congress MLA said on condition of anonymity on Friday. According to the MLA, they have received reports from the Assembly Secretariat that the CLP leader had met Assembly Speaker, Metbah Lyngdoh on Thursday seeking an appointment to submit of letter of support of the 12 MLAs aligning with the TMC on Friday at 1pm.
“We were informed that he (Mukul) later told that the Assembly Speaker that he will becoming at 2pm. But the Leader of Opposition finally did not met the Speaker since his plan to submit the letter of support of the 12 MLAs to split the Congress did not materialise,” the Congress MLA said.
The MLAs said that it is time for Dr Mukul to understand what he is doing is not right.
“We need to put our house in order by making the CLP leader answerable for what he is going. We still recognise him as one undisputed leader. But he will need to understand it is important to work as a team,” the MLAs said.
A section of the MLAs said that former CM did not listen when they had requested him not to rush in removing former Congress leader, DD Lapang from the MPCC chief’s post ahead of 2018 polls.
Further, the Congress MLAs made it very clear that this time they will not allow the AICC to remove Pala from the post of the president just because the CLP leader is not happy over his appointment.
“We had waited for nearly one year for the AICC to appoint the new MPCC president. We need to allow the new team to work in rebuilding the party in the State,” a section of the Congress MLAs said.
The MLAs further stated that the AICC should listen to the voice of the majority.
Meanwhile, a section of the MLAs revealed that former Chief Minister had contacted the MLAs on his arrival from Delhi to express his anger and frustration that he was sidelined by the AICC leaders since he did not get an appointment.
One of the party MLAs informed that AICC general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi had met Dr. Mukul.
According to the MLA, Congress interim president, Sonia Gandhi was in Ooty a day before the CLP leader landed in Delhi. Even Rahul Gandhi was in Kerala when Dr Mukul was camping in Delhi. He had gone to Delhi without seeking prior appointment with the AICC interim president,” the Congress MLA claimed adding that he could have met AICC general secretary, KC Venugopal to air his grievances.
“We were initially convinced that there is a need to look after an alternate beyond the Congress after listening to the CLP leader. But it is not the right time to rush since the AICC had responded to the demand for a change by appointing a new MPCC president in the form of Shillong MP, Vincent H. Pala,” MLA said.
A section of the MLAs stated that majority of the MLAs later declined to be part of the scheme of things initiated by the CLP leader to align with the TMC by splitting the Congress.
