SHILLONG, Oct 10: Senior Congress legislators Charles Pyngrope and Ampareen Lyngdoh have downplayed the demand by a section of party MLAs for the removal of Mukul Sangma as the CLP leader.
Pyngrope said the election of the new CLP leader can only happen if a vacancy arises.
“As of now, there is no vacancy. We have no inputs or indications that the Leader of Opposition (Sangma) is quitting Congress and joining any other political party,” he told The Shillong Times.
Stating that he is not aware of the CLP leader having asked any of the Congress MLAs to join him, Pyngrope said it could be mere speculation by the media.
“We cannot always believe what is reported in the media. There should be concrete evidence that the CLP leader is deserting the party. But the information we have is that he is trying very hard to keep all the MLAs together,” he said.
Lyngdoh denied any move to remove Sangma as the CLP leader. “There are other procedures in the party that need to be adopted if the need is there. We have to first verify whether it is fact that he is trying to split the party and engineered a coup,” the East Shillong MLA said.
A disciplinary committee will come into the picture if there is any evidence about such a move, she added.
Lyngdoh also said she will ask the CLP leader if the reports of his plan to leave the party are true.
“We, Mukul Sangma and his entire family are Congress workers to the core. There have to be sufficient reasons for him to exit. It is not going to be a simple thing for anyone who has been with the party for that long,” she said.
Party insiders revealed that a section of the MLAs has already met the MPCC president, Vincent H. Pala and general secretary, Deborah C. Marak to pressure the AICC to remove Sangma as the CLP leader.
According to them, these MLAs have even spoken to the AICC general secretary in charge of Meghalaya, Manish Chatrath about this.
The MLAs are learnt to have said that letting Sangma continue as the CLP leader would harm the party as he has been indulging in anti-party activities. “Some kind of action needs to be initiated against the CLP leader,” a party leader said.
“Fact is, no one will dare to speak against the CLP leader. It is only Sangma who speaks in the CLP meeting. None of the MLAs will utter a single word,” a party insider said.
They also said there was a similar trend when Sangma was the CLP leader during his tenure as the Chief Minister.
“Even the likes of Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhalang Dhar would not dare to speak in the CLP meeting. This was the reason why both decided to leave Congress,” the leader said.
‘Congress united, issues resolved’
State Congress president Vincent H Pala on Sunday asserted that the party will be fighting the upcoming by-elections as a united front since everything was resolved and accused the NPP, UDP and BJP of trying to cash in by projecting the Congress as a divided house.
Reacting strongly to talks about differences in the Congress camp, Pala said, “The BJP is the real master of the P-P-P parties like NPP and UDP. They work on behalf of the BJP only.”
“Every vote you give to NPP or UDP is being given to the BJP,” he added.
Pala also pointed out that parties like the NPP were poaching members of the Congress as they do not have capable members of their own.
“They can buy the leaders but the voters and workers will always remain with us be it in Mawphlang or Mawryngkneng,” he said further adding, “They can take the leaders but they cannot take our votes. We will win the elections.”
