Former Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma today said that the decision by the twelve Congress MLAs to quit the party and join the Trinamool Congress was done after exhaustive due diligence and analysis.
“With complete sense of responsibility and commitment, we have taken a conscious decision to merge with the All India Trinamool Congress. This is a culmination of our exhaustive due diligence and analysis,” Dr. Sangma told media persons here today.
Dr. Sangma who served as the Meghalaya CM between 2010-2018, said that in spite of all our efforts and endeavours to sort out problems in the Congress, the solution seems to be elusive.
“We tried our best to prevail upon the leadership and kept on making trips after trips to Delhi, which should have been the other way round. But even after that we failed to prevail upon the leadership,” he said.
Justifying the decision of him and his group to join the Trinamool Congress, Dr. Sangma said, “There is a need for a strong pan India alternative political party and this is based on the perception that the Congress is failing to respond to its call of duty as the main opposition party in the country and, therefore, our exercise to find a viable pan India option to take care of the State, region and nation ultimately culminated into this decision,” he said.
Dr. Sangma also admitted to have met political strategist of Trinamool Congress, Prashant Kishore to discuss all issues in detail before taking the decision to sever ties with the Congress.
“Prashant Kishore and I share the same objective and aim of the interest of the state,” Dr. Sangma said.
Stating that the Trinamool Congress will go beyond the boundaries of Meghalaya and expand in the North East region, Dr. Sangma said that he was confident that the party will be accepted by the people of Meghalaya and the region as a whole.
He also said that the NPP-led government in Meghalaya was installed by the BJP.
“NPP is part of the team…it is amazing that they sometimes speak against each other but aren’t they the same? We have to be determined, we have to take our political opponent head on and that is what people expect, we can’t just have lip service,” Dr. Sangma added.
He also said that the ideology of Trinamool Congress is completely different from the NPP and other political parties.
“The Trinamool Congress is fighting against those who nurture an ideology which is not compatible with our nation with diverse backgrounds of people and is not compatible with the socio-political spectrum that this nation has. Therefore, we have a very clear understanding as to why we have aligned ourselves with TMC,” Dr. Sangma said.
Meanwhile, senior MLA and former Assembly Speaker Charles Pyngrope said that he along with all the MLAs who left the Congress took the decision as they needed a space to be created wherein their potential to work as leaders can be utilised to the optimum.
He also stated that in his meeting with Kishore they came with the idea to take the country forward and fight communal forces and create a team leadership that will guide all of them and also be guided by their own capabilities.
