NEW DELHI/SHILLONG, Oct 3: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi met Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president Vincent H Pala and estranged Legislature Party leader, Mukul Sangma in New Delhi on Sunday night, in a move that is likely to bring to an end the volatile party affairs in Meghalaya.
The talks continued at the official residence of Rahul at the time of going to press. Both Mukul and Pala were closeted with Gandhi. The meeting was also attended by AICC leader, KC Venugopal and party’s Meghalaya in-charge, Manish Chatrath.
Though there was no word from either side on the agenda or the outcome of the meeting, release of names of three party candidates for the October 30 bypolls to three assembly constituencies in the state signalled a truce between the two veterans.
Both the top leaders were summoned to Delhi by the Congress high command to iron out the growing differences.
The duo is likely to meet Sonia Gandhi on Monday for a final settlement, AICC sources said.
Mukul is upset over Pala’s appointment as MPCC president without taking him into confidence and also certain ‘unilateral’ actions the latter had taken soon after taking charge.
Mukul was on the verge of joining Trinamool Congress with a number of MLAs and his supporters and had even held a meeting in Kolkata but deferred his decision following intervention of the party leadership.
Meghalaya in-charge, Manish Chatrath however maintained that there was no problem in the state Congress and all issues have been sorted out.
AICC sources said that after the exit of former Meghalaya in-charge Luizinho Faleiro and former Mahila Congress president, Sushmita Dev, who have since joined the TMC, Sonia is personally trying to pacify the leaders and put the house in order in the North East.
Once a Congress bastion, the BJP has captured almost the whole of the Northeast with the help of Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Congress leader and now Assam chief minister.
Shillong was agog last week with speculations rife over Mukul aligning with TMC. Later, he clarified that the reports are speculative but did not rule out the same altogether.
PCC seeks end to niggles within
The Congress in the state expects the party’s central leadership to come out with a long-term solution to the internal rumblings in the party.
“This cannot go on like this. We expect that the AICC will solve it once and for all,” party leader and Opposition Chief Whip, PT Sawkmie said on Sunday.
“I expect a positive outcome which will help us to unite and work together in the interest of the party,” Sawkmie said.
Pointing out that the bye-elections are on the anvil and the party has to work hard, he said, “We need all of us to be united so that our candidates get inspired and we fare well in the polls. If we are not united, it will become difficult.”
Veteran Congress leader, Charles Pyngrope also expressed confidence that the party can iron out the differences through dialogues and with the intervention of party’s national president Sonia Gandhi.
