SHILLONG, Feb 6: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has remained dormant in Meghalaya since last year’s Assembly elections.
Despite an aggressive election campaign, the party had ended up winning just five seats. Party sources admitted that there is a total lack of coordination between the central leadership and the state unit.
There is no talk on whether the party would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Meghalaya, although it has demanded the Tura seat from the Congress as part of the envisaged seat-sharing agreement among Opposition INDIA bloc members.
The seat-sharing pact, however, appears unlikely given that the Congress and the TMC failed to come to any agreement in West Bengal where TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the party would go it alone in the polls.
There have been speculations from time to time that TMC leaders Mukul Sangma, who is the parliamentary party leader, and Charles Pyngrope, the state president, will desert the party and embrace the BJP.
The TMC had suffered a jolt last year when its state vice president George B Lyngdoh resigned from the post citing personal reasons. Sources indicated he took the decision to further his career which was becoming stagnant in the TMC.
Pyngrope on Tuesday said there is no update from the party high command on whether or not the party will contest the polls in Meghalaya. He refused to comment when asked if the TMC is abandoning Meghalaya.
The TMC workers are said to be in the dark on the party’s future as it has not yet shown any interest in contesting the polls. Sources claimed the state unit is having discussions on contesting from the Tura seat but the central leadership does not seem to be interested at all in the affairs of Meghalaya.
The last few individuals of IPAC, who worked for the party during Assembly elections, left the state recently. IPAC officials said those who left were not active in the state after the elections.
