By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 10: MPCC president and Lok Sabha member, Vincent H. Pala has played down the flight of 11 Congress members of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council to the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
He said the development was on expected lines and “nothing to be surprised about”.
“Most of the members of district council (MDCs) are related with the MLAs who have already quit our party. We were aware of the situation and have been working on infusing fresh blood into the system,” he said on Friday.
“We have already started enrolling the youths,” he added.
Pala said the vacuum in Congress in the Garo Hills would be an opportunity for young minds there to fill, insisting the resignation of the MDCs was not much of a setback for the party.
“I realised we have leaders but not many workers at the grassroots level. We have enough time to expand at the grassroots level,” he said, refusing to call the Garo Hills development a wipe-out for Congress.
“Congress will always be there and this has not happened for the first time,” he asserted.
“When PA Sangma left, they said Congress had been wiped out. They said the same thing when Prestone Tynsong and others left. We are still here and this time we took action in advance,” he said, adding the party had changed the key people in all the Assembly constituencies when the 12 MLAs decided to quit. “Many people have approached us; the youth, doctors, engineers, retired officials and some willing to take voluntary retirement to contest elections from our party. We will start strengthening the party in the New Year,” Pala said.
He shrugged off the “accusation” that his leadership style made the MLAs join the AITC. “Some people need an excuse to leave the party. I do not have a problem as we are used to accusations and abuses,” he said.
Pala said he and his National People’s Party counterpart WR Kharlukhi have been working together in New Delhi to flag major issues of the state.
“We may be from different parties but our focus in Delhi is on the interest of the people and the state. I discuss issues with him (Kharlukhi) for raising them in the Rajya Sabha,” he said.
Among the issues was the push for the inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, he added.
Kharlukhi had raised questions in the Upper House on the status of the demand for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Meghalaya.
The ILP system came into existence in 1873 with the promulgation of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation and is reviewed from time to time. Presently, it exists in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.