In a major jolt to the Congress party all its 11 MDCs in the Garo Hill Autonomous District Council (GHADC) today officially quit the party before joining the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
The move comes a day after a huge number of youth Congress members merged with the AITC making a huge dent in the prospects of the Congress.
The Congress earlier had 12 members with Ashahel D Shira moving to the UDP leaving 11 in the opposition bench.
The joining ceremony of the former Congress MDCs took place in an induction ceremony held at the Dekachang playground in Resubelpara under North Garo Hills. The ceremony took place in the presence of the former CM, Mukul Sangma who was joined on the dias by Zenith Sangma, HM Shangpliang , Jimmy Sangma, Marthon Sangma, Winnerson Sangma and Lazarus Sangma.
The MDCs that joined the AITC bandwagon are Agassi Marak, Stevie Marak, Alphonsush Marak, Lahitson Sangma, Cherak Momin, Sadhiarani Sangma, Nehru Sangma, Rinaldo Sangma, Sanjoy Kock and Pardinand Sangma. Another MDC, Habibuz Zaman was absent due to his child being in hospital though he too confirmed his joining.
As per the AITC, this is the third such meeting of the newly formed party in the state with the first being at Songsak and the second at Ampati. Similar programs are going to be held across the region, which the party members said was to effectively spread the message of the party.
During his speech, the former CM called members of the Congress party as ‘Mir Jafar’, the historical figure whose name stands for betrayal, alleging that the members themselves were the ones that worked against each other to ensure losses.
“Before the 2018 elections, political pundits had asserted that the Congress would be back in Meghalaya. However we lost and this was due to the Congress members betraying each other. Why would a party field a candidate to lose when there are other candidates that have a better chance at winning. This is what has been happening in the Congress for some time,” said Mukul.
Explaining to the crowd the reason for joining AITC, Mukul said that they had no other choice as all regional parties were working with the ‘divisive’ BJP.
“Where could we go as the government was the BJP’s. While these regional parties had promised to not work with them, they ended up working with them. The Mamata Banerjee led party is a different story altogether as she was the only one standing up and winning against the BJP, like she did in West Bengal,” he added.
Taking a dig at the Congress’ central leadership, Sangma said that elections cannot be won through Facebook and Twitter but had to be fought on the ground where the real fights were.
Conceding that they had a lot of work ahead, Mukul expressed confidence that they would win the upcoming MLA elections in 2023.
Speaking on behalf of the MDCs, Cherak Momin stated that the reason for them moving was to work with Dr Mukul Sangma.
Others who spoke at the meeting included MLAs Zenith Sangma, Marthon Sangma and youth leader Rupa Marak.
