There are speculations galore about some the more prominent faces in Meghalaya’s stormy politics. Some of the stormy petrels whose words make news are Dr Mukul Sangma and Paul Lyngdoh. There are speculations galore about their future political moves. Then there’s the Meghalaya Congress President, Vincent Pala who has jumped into the whirlpool of controversies and added his twist to the story of the combined North East Political grouping under the clever nomenclature of One North East (ONE). Pala calls the new initiative a machination of the RSS to leverage from that combined force as a strategy for the BJP to benefit from without wasting its own time and resources.
Such snide remarks from opposing forces is fair game but what the common voter rather than the political players are interested to know is what are Dr Mukul Sangma’s next calculated moves. During his tenure in the Congress and the Trinanool Congress he has bad-mouthed the BJP and called it a fascist party that has scant respect for the diversity and spirit of secularism and no respect for minority tribals. So his joining the BJP upfront can perhaps be ruled out. Knowing his adversarial stances vis a vis the National Peoples’ Party (NPP) it is unlikely that he would throw in his weight behind the newly emerged – ONE. So what are his next moves? Would Mukul Sangma create a new regional party considering that the TMC is almost deadwood in Meghalaya? And what about Charles Pyngrope the TMC President and his political future? Pyngrope has not burnt all his bridges with the Congress so his return there is imminent. So far the Congress Party is the only one with a pan-India reach – a national party like the BJP. The Congress’s fortunes are right now being tested and voters wonder if the Party will redeem itself and what it would take for the Congress to win back peoples’ confidence.
The BJP has proven that public money can be used just before the elections to pay out to what is an alarmingly growing population of the ‘very poor’ – which has a woman’s face. Economists have long ago arrived at the term – ‘feminisation of poverty.’ Women have to provide for their families when the male members don’t earn enough to help pull the family through day after day. Hence any amount that accrues to their accounts is a blessing in disguise and women are inclined to vote for a Party that ostensibly empathises with their hardships. In this game of one-upmanship the Congress Party has lost out. Without money they cannot offer any visible help to the growing number of poverty stricken population in this country. The BJP moreover has the RSS who are its eyes, ears and hands reaching out to the rural outback of the country including in tribal areas like Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram amongst others. In this convoluted political scenario when the Congress is not scoring any political points and does not seem to have a resuscitation plan, can the Meghalaya Congress be seen as a political competitor? How political stalwarts like Mukul Sangma, Paul Lyngdoh and Charles Pyngrope move on the political chessboard will be watched with interest.
