New Delhi: A Sunday night intervention by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has averted further split in the Meghalaya unit of the party 'for the time being' with former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma expressing his desire to work for the party in the State.
"He (Mukul Sangma) cleared his intention to work wholeheartedly for the party. There is no more misunderstanding between us and we are ready for the coming by-elections," said Vincent H Pala, a sitting Congress MP from Shillong and president of Meghalaya Congress to ETV Bharat in an exclusive interview.
Meghalaya is heading towards by-polls for three Assembly seats on October 30. The rift between Pala and Sangma started immediately after the former was appointed as the president of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi recently.
Following Pala's appointment, Sangma who ruled the State from 2010-18 expressed his displeasure. Sangma said that he was not consulted by central Congress leadership before appointing Pala as the State party president. However, Pala said, "In the meeting, he was informed that several attempts were made by the party high command before announcing my name as State president."
State in charge of AICC Manish Chatrath and party general secretary KC Venugopal were also present during the meeting on Sunday. Rahul Gandhi's intervention comes at a time when Sangma has reportedly met Trinamool Congress leadership in Kolkata recently with an intention to switch over to the West Bengal based party. Pala said that Sangma has denied such reports of meeting TMC leadership. The statement given by Pala assumes significance following the fact that TMC has started a massive "poaching" of leaders from other political parties.
Recently, senior leader Sushmita Dev, former Goa chief minister Luizinho Falerio from Congress defected to the Trinamool Congress. Former Union Minister Babul Suprio who left BJP recently also joined TMC. Political observers believe that the TMC's whooping victory during West Bengal polls attracted all the leaders to join the TMC. "They are joining TMC because they have their own agenda. I don't think Congress leaders joining TMC will make any difference for the grand old party," said Pala.
The National People's Party (NPP) led coalition dethroned Congress rule from the state in 2018 Meghalaya Assembly polls. Congrad Sangma led NPP with its 19 MLAs, six from United Democratic Party (UDP), four from People's Democratic Front (PDF), two each from Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP), BJP and one independent formed government in the 60 member legislative Assembly. Congress won 21 seats in the 2018 State election.
Amid reports that the political equations for Congress is getting worse in the northeast, Pala said that the party has introspected over their strategy and determined to fight the BJP and TMC. Assam BJP dethroned Congress from power for the first time followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur. In other northeastern States, BJP is supporting the ruling party.
"The leaders who are supposed to leave, they have already left. The party is settled now in Northeast," said Pala. He claimed that the defection of some party leaders to another party will hardly make any impact as "the support base of Congress is still intact."
Also read: Ahead of Meghalaya by-polls, Rahul Gandhi meets Mukul Sangma, other leaders
