Regional parties keep the Congress out of coalition governments for their own selfish interests rather than for the benefit of the State, East Shillong MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh has told Highland Post.
Because of the never-ending rivalry between the Congress and the BJP nationwide, regional parties shy away from including the Grand Old Party in any kind of political coalition in Meghalaya, she opined.
“And at the end of the day this is a simple equation – that it is not the good things that can happen to the State that is important to them (regional parties) but to remain in power for their political benefits,” the Congress legislator stated.
Recently, Jemino Mawthoh, the general secretary of UDP, a party which once had been in coalition with the Congress, had said that the latter is a spent force because it has failed to make any headway against the BJP at the Centre and will thus find it next to impossible to make a comeback in the 2023 Meghalaya election.
Lyngdoh did not deny that the Congress is weak at the central level but rebutted the idea that it cannot form the next State government.
“We already know that in a federal structure a party that is weak at the Centre can be very strong in the state. The All India Trinamool Congress (which runs West Bengal) is not strong at the Centre but it has its own character in West Bengal and, for that matter, you see regional government leading states in South India. So, it is an incorrect interpretation to say that just because the Congress is weak in a certain location that the Congress in Meghalaya is also weak,” she said.
Previous experience of shaky coalition governments in Meghalaya has also led to the situation where the junior parties in an alliance tend not to want to shake the boat in order to keep the coalition in power, Lyngdoh said.
“This is true even of this current MDA government where, except for the BJP, the regional parties have stuck it out despite the allegations of corruption and other criticism against this government,” she added.
“We (the opposition) will not attempt to reply on their behalf because we really don’t know what the magic and the mantra is that keeps them together,” she said.
Despite the relative stability of the ruling coalition, the former cabinet minister said that she is disappointed with the level of activity shown by the government in its three years in charge, with most of the projects that are being launched having been proposed by the Congress-led administration prior to 2018.
“I feel that this positivity (of having a stable coalition) should have been adequately taken advantage of by the government which it has, however, failed to do,” Lyngdoh said.
Meanwhile, State Congress Secretary Bajop Pyngrope has rubbished the statement made by Jemino Mawthoh that the Congress’s spine is broken at the State level because of its weakness at the Centre.
“We have substantial numbers of MLAs in the State and all over the country but what does the UDP have? They don’t even have one MP and their claims are immature,” Pyngrope told Highland Post recently.
Claiming that the Meghalaya Congress is very strong and that the people have realized this, he said, “If Mawthoh thinks that the regional parties should rule in 2023 then the regional parties should come out of the MDA coalition where there is a lot of mismanagement.”
He opined that the regional parties still lack the necessary experience to govern Meghalaya given what has happened in the last three years.
