From C.K Nayak
NEW DELHI: The beleaguered Congress on Monday unofficially sounded the poll bugle in one of its last bastions, Meghalaya, with AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi directing Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and MPCC President DD Lapang to step on the gas.
The delayed directive comes amid reports of several Congress legislators joining BJP in the Hill State.
After sleeping over the State’s abysmal affairs, Rahul called both Sangma and Lapang and held a meeting on Monday. The AICC General Secretary in charge of the state, CP Joshi, was also present, party sources said here.
Rahul advised both the top state leaders that the Government and the party should work in tandem and that no party leader or legislator should feel leftout giving the saffron party the opportunity to poach them, party sources said.
The Meghalaya Congress has been witnessing internal bickering since last few years and the resentment grew to an extent that several leaders demanded a change in leadership.
The party also suspended MLA and KHADC chief executive member P.N Syiem for pointing out the fallacies in the Mukul Sangma-led MUA-II.
Now, with the concurrent poll debacles across the country and anti-incumbency at home, many senior Congress leaders in the State are exploring greener pastures before the 2018 Assembly election.
There were reports that some Congress legislators would meet BJP president Amit Shah during his visit to Shillong in August.
Though BJP has described it as a ‘courtesy call’, speculations are already rife in the State’s political fraternity.
Meghalaya BJP had said at least seven legislators from the Congress, the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the National People’s Party (NPP) wanted to have an audience with Shah.
While UDP and NPP are already allies of BJP in NDA, it is the report of ruling party MLAs that has unnerved the Congress top brass.
BJP does not have any representative in the present 60-member Meghalaya Assembly though it had representatives in the previous assemblies. But former cabinet Minister and now Congress Vice-President AL Hek might lead the BJP in the pre-poll or post-poll alignments.
