SHILLONG, Feb 9: Reacting to the All India Congress Committee’s threat to take action against the five MLAs for supporting the NPP-led government without its approval, Congress Legislature Party leader Ampareen Lyngdoh said the AICC cannot dictate terms to them.
“We are not a rubber-stamp CLP. We five are the only surviving MLAs of the party at this point in time,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
She said the AICC has been blamed for all the ills in the party’s state unit.
“It will be against the interest of the party if it takes action against us. We would like to leave it to your wisdom to decide,” Lyngdoh said.
Coming down heavily on Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president Vincent H Pala, she said it does not really matter what one individual says.
She said the five MLAs had met Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on January 22 with the intention to provide issue-based support to the MDA government.
“Why was the CLP not prevented from going ahead all these days if there was any objection to our plan? The AICC or MPCC should have written to us if they disagreed with our move,” Lyngdoh said.
Revealing it is difficult for the MLAs to meet the AICC leaders, she said it is totally unacceptable that they will have to wait for their (AICC’s) permission on things that are politically productive for the state.
“The ball is now in the MPCC’s court. We are ready to debate this internally,” she added.
Lyngdoh asserted that the five MLAs cannot be ignored by anyone. The Congress leadership will be responsible for any damage to the party if it refuses to listen to them, she said.
But she thanked Congress for giving them a jersey in 2018.
“We want to assure that we will not ditch the party. But you can no longer control us. Listen to us as this will be for the good of the party in Meghalaya. Otherwise do what you want. We are not running a charity organisation and we are responsible for the people who have elected us,” Lyngdoh said.
She said the BJP, being a part of the coalition the CLP, has supported was not their problem. “We lost 12 MLAs and nobody reacted. We are survivors and we did not want to fight with any system,” she said.