Despite the intensifying rumours, Dr Mukul Sangma, the leader of the opposition, Congress Legislative Party leader and former Chief Minister, said that it is still too premature to talk of him leaving the party when he is still trying to get the issues sorted out.
It has become apparent that Dr Sangma has become somewhat aggravated with the path the Congress has taken of late, at least in the choice of its new state Congress president, the sitting Shillong MP Vincent Pala.
There have been rumours that he, and 12 other Congress legislators, would quit the party to join the Trinamool Congress or even the BJP.
“I have said that I shouldn’t be a victim of a sense of pessimism,” Dr Sangma said today even as he expressed hoped that the party will resolve its differences.
The idea that he will depart for the Trinamool should not be given credibility because it did not come from the “horse’s mouth”.
Although he has skipped two party functions since Pala took charge of the state Congress, he said that he will attend the meeting scheduled on Saturday to finalise the party’s candidates for the upcoming by-elections to the Mawryngkneng, Mawphlang and Rajabala seats; two of these were held by Congress MLAs and it is imperative that the party holds on to them for its own image and standing among the populace.
Following Saturday’s meeting, Dr Sangma will head back to New Delhi for another round of meetings with the Congress central leadership on the troubles brewing in the Meghalaya unit.
Stating that all are waiting for things to be resolved in as far as the issues are concerned, the leader of the opposition said, “We will try to resolve it. But challenges are there always and resolving issues requires certain amount of patience. I hope all those factors which require to ultimately arrive at finding a resolution or solution become possible than it will end within the four walls of the party.”
He also said that the grievances within the party are already having consequences. In this he was referring to the announcement that Congress MDC Lamphrang Blah will contest the Mawphlang Assembly by-election from the National People’s Party (NPP). Such a defection is just the “tip of the iceberg” and a strong indication that the turmoil within the party will have grave consequences if not resolved well ahead of the October 30 by-election.
Meanwhile, on the current crises that the Congress is facing all over the country, the leader of the opposition said that party legislators in Meghalaya want to avoid a Punjab-like situation where internal party disagreements led to a string of resignations.
“That’s why what you are seeing in Punjab you are not seeing here. We don’t want to be like Punjab. What you see in Punjab could have been avoided if they would have adopted the same approach as us,” Dr Sangma added.
