Shillong, May 16: The issue of change of leadership in the state Congress took a new turn with a rift surfacing within the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) on the ways and means of settling the matter once and for all.
PCC president Friday Lyngdoh told a news conference today that after a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on May 10 accompanied by the working president Deborah Marak, she had conveyed to him there should not be any change of leadership in the state.
“The AICC president is not in favour of frequent change of leadership since it hampers the development process as well as the good momentum of governance,” Lyngdoh said.
However, to a question whether the matter should be settled in the meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), working president Marak said the AICC leaders would come to Shillong shortly to convene a CLP meeting to address the grievances, including the issue of the change of leadership.
Reacting to these comments, Lyngdoh said, “I am the president of the party and the AICC president has made it clear that there is no question of change of leadership.”
The varied views of Lyngdoh and Marak reflect that all is not well within the party on the issue of the change of leadership. Besides the current resentment among the Congress legislators, with 18 out of the total 28 legislators demanding a change of leadership, the fresh rift within the PCC has added further trouble to the Congress.
While the PCC president said the party did not want to see legislators raking up the issue of change of leadership, the working president is of the view the party was open to the idea of discussing the issue in the CLP.
According to the PCC president, the party legislators should voice their grievances in the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Grievances Committee, approved by the AICC.
While Lyngdoh is the chairman of the committee as party president, the member secretary is A.H. Scott Lyngdoh who is the senior general secretary of the party.
The other three members of the committee include the working president of the party, Marak, and senior Congress leaders, S.C. Marak and P.R. Kyndiah.
According to Friday Lyngdoh, the obligation of the party legislators should be towards the people and no other issues should precede this priority.
“The priority should be on development, employment generation, economic prosperity and implementation of flagship programmes,” Lyngdoh said. “The legislators should work hard so that like Assam we will emerge victorious in our electoral foray in 2013.”
Lyngdoh’s statement on change of leadership is nothing new as he made the same observations in February this year during a news conference here. He had said he had met Sonia Gandhi on January 24 in Delhi and that she had made it clear that there was no question of change of leadership.
According to Lyngdoh, she had also wanted the legislators to work in a united manner and wholeheartedly for the betterment of the state and its people.
Chief minister Mukul Sangma also addressed a news conference this evening and stressed the need to carry out development work.
Sangma said he had the support of all, and the priority now was to focus on the pending state schemes and the flagship programmes of the UPA government.
