The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is hoping to be able to make common cause with the Congress Party and Voice of the People Party (VPP) as they form the only opposition to the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government in the Assembly.
As the TMC and Congress have five MLAs each and the VPP four, no member of any of these three can become leader of the opposition unless a bloc of one-sixth of the House of 60 agrees on the role. The VPP has already expressed its unwillingness to cooperate, leaving the decision up to the TMC and Congress who have the requisite numbers together.
When asked if the divided opposition means a weaker opposition, TMC state leader Dr Mukul Sangma said, “We have our own respective identities as political parties. There’s no question of diluting that but the role of the opposition is to synchronise and synergise our reports collectively towards achieving and fulfilling our purpose to enable us to be effective and constructive as the opposition.”
Breaking into a sports analogy, he added, “When you play football, you may be different players but you’re in the same team. So, how you dribble to ultimately ensure that the team wins is how it works.”
When asked, he also said that there is a precedent for a leader of the opposition being appointed when an opposition party had fewer than 10 MLAs, Dr Sangma said, citing the occupancy of that post by the late Donkupar Roy of the United Democratic Party between 2013 and 2018.
