They may come up with whatever justifications they can think of but the three MLAs who quit the Congress Party to join the National People’s Party (NPP) did so by being bought by the latter, state Congress figure Manuel Badwar told Highland Post today.
The Congress has thus been reduced to a single solitary MLA, Ronnie Lyngdoh. The defections also apply to the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), as both Charles Marngar and Gabriel Wahlang are also MDCs.
“They can always find excuses like blaming the leadership or whatever but they have been bought,” Badwar said. “Four to five months back, these were the same people who had said ugly things about the NPP and also claimed that the Congress state president was close to the NPP, but now they are the ones joining the other party.”
This is the third time in as many years that the Congress has witnessed mass defections in the Assembly. First came the decamping of 12 MLAs to the Trinamool Congress. The remaining five then split in favour of the NPP and United Democratic Party, leaving the Congress with no MLAs before the 2018 state election. It was then that, despite the odds, the Congress came back with five. The party was on a high of sorts after winning the Tura parliamentary seat from the NPP (though they lost Shillong to the Voice of the People Party), even if that meant Gambegre MLA Saleng Sangma had to resign, reducing the party’s strength in the Assembly to four.
The loss of the Shillong seat by state Congress chief Vincent Pala led to wild rumours that he was cozying up to the NPP but, in the end, it is the three rebels who jumped ship.
Badwar said that they could come up with many reasons for leaving the Congress but the NPP used its muscle power and deep pockets to poach them.
According to Badwar, the NPP’s morale had been crushed by their twin defeats in Shillong and Tura, which, according to him, was evidence of how the party had weakened over time. Desperate to revive itself ahead of the Gambegre by-election, the ruling party used all its might to turn the tide.
“Now they (the NPP) will use this political agenda to revive itself and by buying these three MLAs they will say Congress is fully weakened,” Badwar stated.
He also emphasised that political leaders should have the will to be able to stay in the opposition and be patient and not weak-minded.
“They can go on lying to the people that they are joining to benefit their constituents and get development (for their constituencies) but these may all end up as hollow promises like the many promises that remain unfulfilled under the NPP,” Badwar added. “This is also a pure betrayal of the people’s mandate because when they contested elections, they went to the people not only in their capacity but in the name of the Congress and the party’s principles. They can fool the people once but not all the time.”
Even after six years in power, the NPP-led government has failed, according to the Congressman, to deliver in the health or education sectors, while Meghalaya’s financial position worsens. Joining such a party “speaks volumes” of the three MLAs, he added.
