Shillong, Mar 19: The Meghalaya unit of the Congress Party today expressed confidence in the strength of its case against four MLAs who defected to the National People’s Party (NPP).
The Congress won five seats in the 2023 elections. While one MLA – Saleng Sangma – stepped down to contest (and win) the Tura Lok Sabha election the following year, the other four legislators defected to join the ruling NPP. Celestine Lyngdoh (Umsning), Gabriel Wahlang (Nongstoin) and Charles Marngar (Mawhati) left in August 2024. Ronnie Lyngdoh (Mylliem) followed suit the next year.
“It is very unconstitutional the way things happened. MLAs cannot just jump from one party to another according to their whims and fancies,” state Congress general secretary Manual Badwar said, adding that the party will pursue the case to its logical conclusion.
According to him, politicians should have higher “moral standards” than what are on display today.
The Congress has moved the High Court over the defections after Speaker Thomas A Sangma (also of the NPP) rejected the party’s original complaint on “flimsy grounds”.
The case was not helped after Ronnie defected. While he was the lone Congress MLA left, the party’s complaint was done in his name. But after he moved to the NPP the Congress had to pursue the case from the beginning.
Badwar said that the Congress stands on strong ground and added that the case is progressing well.
“We would like to send this message very loud and clear, not just to the present politicians but also to the future politicians of the state that the rule of the land or the Constitution will not allow you to just do whatever you want,” he added.
Legal cell member of the Congress, Kynpham Kharlyngdoh, said that the party filed its complaint under Paragraph 6 of the Meghalaya Disqualification Rules 1972 and the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, an anti-defection provision.
Explaining the party’s reasoning, Badwar said that the four were still Congress legislators on August 12, 2024, when the party issued notice to two MLAs – Wahlang and Marngar. Until four days later Celestine was still a member of the party, came to the Congress office, sat in on meetings, etc. Ronnie was also still loyal.
With only 50 per cent of the MLAs wanting to defect (or technically merge the Congress Party in the Assembly with the NPP), this was insufficient to meet the requirements of the anti-defection law. At least, that is what the Congress argues. It is now up to the High Court to deliver its verdict in the matter.
