This by-election with only three seats at stake was considered serious enough for the Chief Minister of the State to camp at Rajabala for several days and from there to reach out to the constituencies in East Khasi Hills. Similarly, for Congress President, Vincent Pala too this was a trial by fire. He had taken over just two months ago and it was not smooth sailing. His colleague, Dr Mukul Sangma, Leader of the Opposition in the present assembly and former chief minister did not take too kindly to the appointment of Mr Pala as he was not consulted by the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) on the matter. Subsequently, the two were asked to come to Delhi and on the face of it the attempt at working out a rapprochement between them seems to have worked, at least for now. But since there cannot be two chief ministers in waiting it still seems like a rough road ahead for the Congress.
The I-PAC team of researchers which has been studying all the 60 constituencies for over two months now aver that there is a huge anti-incumbency factor that has set in against the MDA Government. People speak of the large-scale corruption, poor development and the fact that there are too many businessmen/contractors running the Government. At this juncture the best thing that can happen to the Congress is for Dr Mukul Sangma and Vincent Pala to work together for a common cause and leave their personal ambitions behind. But is that possible? If both Dr Sangma and Pala are concerned about the State and its development they would put their political ego and ambitions aside and work at giving a new direction to the State in its 51st year (2023). It’s high time that the state is led by people with vision and not by short term business interests.
The NPP alluding to the Congress as a sinking ship is a desperate attempt to woo Congress party workers to the fold. And there will be some who might desert the Congress ship for the simple reason that party ideology has never been rooted in Meghalaya. People join a political party to get a ticket to fight elections; nothing more, nothing less. There may be a few party loyalists but even they don’t want to be in a party that’s out of power for too long because those party supporters too are mostly contractors that rely on government patronage. Hence the results today are not necessarily an indicator of what will emerge in 2023.
