NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday appointed a senior observer and six observers for the upcoming Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.
AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, in a communication to the party leaders of the three Northeastern states, said Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Mukul Wasnik will be senior observer for the three states.
Congress MP Benny Behanan and former parliamentarian JD Seelam would be observers for Meghalaya while Francisco Sardinha and K Jayakumar, both members of Parliament, would be observers for Nagaland. Senior Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely and MP Abdul Khaleque would be observers for Tripura.
The Congress, which once ruled all the three Northeastern states, is now not even a formidable opposition force in these states.
The grand old party has no MLA in Meghalaya and Nagaland.
The party, which had emerged as the single largest party in Meghalaya following the 2018 Assembly polls, was reduced to just five in November last year owing to the demise of its sitting legislators and defection by the others.
The remaining five MLAs extended support to the NPP-led MDA Government, which has the BJP as one of its constituents, after which they were suspended from the party, leaving the Congress without any representation in the Assembly.
In Tripura, the party’s condition is slightly better with one MLA. Sudip Roy Barman, a former BJP minister, is now the lone Congress legislator in Tripura. (IANS)
