Pala admits to vacuum in Congress after defection

Shillong, Sep 17: The desertion of the three Congress MLAs to the ruling NPP has left a vacuum in the party, Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president Vincent H Pala admitted on Tuesday.
Following a core committee meeting of party here, Pala told The Shillong Times there is a possibility that the party might not get candidates in all the seats for the upcoming district council elections.
He said it would be too early for him to confirm if the Congress would be able to field candidates in all the 58 seats in the upcoming polls for both the KHADC and JHADC since the party has just started the ground work for the ADC elections.
According to him, the MPCC will hold meetings with the district and block committees in the coming days to discussion the same.
He revealed that some of the block committees have started recommending the names of potential candidates.
Pala said the picture will become clear once they manage to collect the feedback from the block committees in all the 58 constituencies.
Admitting that there is a vacuum in the party, he said, “The good part is that the party supporters and leaders are intact since the former MLAs and MDCs joined the NPP alone.”
The MPCC chief said this desertion phenomenon is not restricted only to Meghalaya since there is poaching of elected representatives of the party in several states like West Bengal, Maharashtra and Haryana.
He informed that party leaders from Delhi will visit the state capital to train the upcoming leaders to develop their organisational skills.
“We are planning to organise a training programme for our young party leaders from October 3 to 5,” Pala added.