Shillong MP and state Congress president Vincent Pala has maintained that the National People’s Party (NPP) is not attracting members through genuine support but is instead buying their allegiance.
The Congress has suffered in a major way, first through defection of 12 MLAs to the Trinamool Congress and then seeing the remaining five, without quitting the party, give their support to the NPP-led state government; these five were subsequently suspended. There have been other defections of MDCs and party leaders at various levels.
“The leaders may have joined the other party and taken away some of the voters with them but the rest of the voters will not vote for them and ensure that they all lose the election in 2023,” Pala said, adding that he foresees difficulty for the turncoats to win next year’s state elections.
“The seniors may have left the Congress Party but our youth are enthusiastic more than ever before and working even harder. Enrolment is moving ahead rapidly and many youth who left have also rejoined the party,” he said.
The party is banking on grassroots support and anti-incumbency to give it some hope of not returning zero MLAs to the next Assembly. The state president also informed that the party will reveal the exact number of people it has enrolled next month.
Meanwhile, Pala further informed that the Congress high command is yet to respond on the action to be taken against the five suspended MLAs. However, he said that he is hopeful of getting a response within a week.
