‘Prestone’s induction a fraud on dissident group’
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Senior Congress legislator FW Momin has stated that the re-induction of GAD Minister Prestone Tynsong alone is a clear indication that former Chief Minister DD Lapang has completely betrayed the dissident group.
“Tynsong should not have accepted the offer to be sworn in as the Cabinet Minister alone. He (Tynsong) should have stuck to the resolution for the re-induction of the four Ministers,” Momin, who was also one of the Cabinet Ministers who was dropped by Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma, told reporters here on Monday.
With the induction of Tynsong, he said, “The compromise agreement for the re-induction of the four dropped Ministers was a complete lie. I do not believe there was any such agreement”.
The senior Congress legislator said Lapang’s claim that AICC president Sonia Gandhi had agreed to work on a formula for the re-induction of the four dropped Ministers was totally misleading.
“Actually, Lapang had gone to meet the AICC president with the sole intention of bargaining for himself and also for Tynsong,” Momin said.
He said it is because of this reason that Lapang and Tynsong had gone to meet Ms Gandhi without taking into confidence the dissident group.
“We were never consulted by Lapang when he had gone to meet the AICC president. We are betrayed by the former Chief Minister whom we had projected as our leader,” the senior Congress legislator said.
Meanwhile, he was of the view that the Congress would be totally wiped out in Garo Hills in the 2013 Assembly election if Dr Mukul remains as the Chief Minister.
“We are going to contest not only against the NCP but we have to contest against the dummy candidates to be put up by the Chief Minister,” Momin said.
Citing an example, he said that the main reason that many of the sitting Congress legislators in Garo Hills lost in the 2008 Assembly election is because of Dr Mukul Sangma propping up his own candidates.
“The Chief Minister had put up many dummy candidates against the Congress legislators in the last Assembly election,” the senior Congress legislator alleged.