New Delhi/Agartala, Dec 26: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday appointed a senior observer and six observers for the upcoming Assembly elections in the three poll-bound northeastern states — Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.
According to the communication, MP Benny Behanan and former parliamentarian J.D. Seelam would be observers for Meghalaya while Francisco Sardinha and K. Jayakumar, both members of Parliament would be observers for Nagaland while senior leader Arvinder Singh Lovely and MP Abdul Khaleque would be observers for Tripura.
The Congress, which once ruled all the three northeastern states — Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, is now not even a formidable opposition force in these states.
The grand old party has no MLA in Nagaland and Sudip Roy Barman, a former BJP minister, is now the lone party legislator in Tripura.
Two of the five Congress MLAs in Meghalaya — Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh and Mohendro Rapsang — joined the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) on December 19.
According to the Meghalaya assembly record, the Congress now has three MLAs in the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly.
However, the three legislators are likely to join other parties soon.
The Congress had earlier suspended all the five party MLAs for hobnobbing with the NPP leadership, specially the Chief Minister and NPP National President Conrad K. Sangma.
