Pala cuts short U.S. trip; party to hold meeting
SHILLONG, Aug 11: The Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Sunday rebutted reports that three sitting MLAs of the party are planning to join the ruling NPP.
When contacted, MPCC working president PN Syiem on Sunday said he reached out to the MLAs after coming across the media reports but they denied any such move on their part. “Since they have denied, the matter ends here,” Syiem said.
The three sitting Congress MLAs — Celestine Lyngdoh (Umsning), Charles Marngar (Mawhati) and Gabriel Wahlang (Nongstoin) were not available to comment as their mobile phone were not reachable.
Despite Syiem’s denial, all is apparently not well within the Congress since the party has decided to hold an emergent meeting to discuss the matter.
Congress insiders said party’s state chief Vincent H Pala cut short his personal visit to the United States and landed in Delhi on Sunday.
A senior Congress leader said, “As of now, they are very much with the party and we hope they won’t go. They have not put their papers down. Reports are surfacing. It could be within the party that they want some change.”
Asked if the three MLAs are in touch with the party, the Congress leader said, “I won’t say they have gone aloof nor will I say communication is regular. It is very well understood within the party that they have been played by outside forces. But it is not right for them also to be played like this.”
However, the Congress leader added, the party will hold a meeting soon to try and understand the issue.
“NPP is desperate. There are a lot of turncoats and they want to come back to the party but they can’t face the president. Maybe, there is an outside force trying to break the party as when most of them left, they said a lot of bad things against the party president. The only option for them is to identify some leaders and try to cajole them,” the party leader said.
“Now most of them have realized that their political future is bleak,” the Congress leader said, adding that they are willing to return to the party but it cannot afford to accommodate the “opportunists”.
