The Voice of the People Party (VPP) and its own legislator, the North Shillong MLA Adelbert Nongrum, appear to be hurtling towards a formal split, with a damaging rift between the two only getting deeper.
Nongrum is one of only four VPP legislators in the Assembly and only joined the party in the weeks before the 2023 state election. However, he was reportedly left disappointed after the party did not support his suggestions for MDCs for the Mawkhar-Pynthorumkhrah and Jaiaw seats in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) election, to be held on February 21.
Now, Nongrum and four disappointed ticket aspirants have put out a video that has since gone viral attacking the party, forcing the VPP to respond.
Spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh today said that the VPP president and Nongkrem MLA Ardent Basaiawmoit, has received a letter from this group calling for a meeting. However, Myrboh said that the upcoming KHADC and JHADC elections have made this meeting difficult to schedule and that the group’s demands make the VPP feel like it is being forced at knifepoint to the meeting.
Party general secretary and Shillong MP Ricky AJ Syngkon had, according to Myrboh, attempted to communicate with the Nongrum-led group but an invitation to meet was rebuffed. Subsequently, the group released a short video trailer, indicating that a full video would be released soon.
Myrboh clarified that the allegations being discussed are internal matters of the VPP and have already been addressed in the state executive committee.
He claimed that there appears to be a concerted effort to destabilise the VPP ahead of the council elections, as the rival National People’s Party (NPP) already seems to know all about the VPP’s internal rift.
Nongrum has seemingly found himself at loggerheads with the party on previous occasions. Myrboh said that the MLA rejected the party’s instructions on how to implement the MLA scheme, questioned the party’s choice of Syngkon as MP candidate and did not follow the VPP’s executive committee in the tabling of private bills in the Assembly; Nongrum had been left embarrassed in the Assembly when even his own party members did not support his private bills.
Despite this rumbling of discontent, Myrboh maintained that the party workers are united and the VPP is not broken; rather, it is facing an attack from a small faction. For now, the party will maintain its focus on the election and deal with Nongrum and the others later.
