MAWKYRWAT, Jan 25: Congress Member of District Council from Mawkyrwat, Carness Sohshang said the TMC had offered him and five other Congress MDCs crores of rupees to quit the grand old party.
Sohshang made the statement during the general meeting of the Mawkyrwat Mahila Block Congress Committee held at the party office here on Wednesday.
Addressing the gathering, he recalled that the NPP and the UDP had “tempted” the Congress MDCs in the KHADC after the Executive Committee led by former CEM, Teinwell Dkhar fell in 2019-20.
“Six of the 12 Congress MDCs in the KHADC were bought (by other parties) but the remaining six of us stood firm,” Sohshang said, adding that the MDCs in the opposition get less salary and fewer schemes than those on the treasury bench.
“Before the (Congress) legislators left the party, they came day and night to try to convince us to join the TMC and offered us crores of rupees,” Sohshang claimed. He said the NPP and the UDP asked him to join their parties in 2020-21 as the then Mawkyrwat MLA, Renikton L Tongkhar was with the HSPDP. He was also promised funds for the Assembly elections, he added.
“Neither money nor power can buy me because I was born and raised in a poor family by my mother who had to sacrifice everything, struggled and faced a lot of problems while raising six children. Yet, she chose the path of truth and righteousness,” Sohshang said.
He said the people voted for him in the MDC election because they knew he could not be bought. “I am contesting the 2023 election without fear even though I am the poorest of the candidates vying for the Mawkyrwat constituency,” he said.
A large number of Mahila workers from the Mawkyrwat constituency attended the meeting during which many women from other political parties joined the Congress fold.