Congress asks Mukul to return to party fold

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 21, 2021

The opposition Congress on Tuesday asked the former chief minister Mukul Sangma and 11 other MLAs, to return to the party.

The Congress also maintained that it will never support the National People’s Party (NPP)-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government so long as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is part of the coalition.

Addressing media persons after a meeting of the District Congress Committee of East Khasi Hills, MPCC working president Pynshngain N Syiem said, “I saw Mukul was requesting all the five MLAs to join the AITC but we also we request Mukul (and his group) to come back to the Congress.”

He said that the petition filed by the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ampareen Lyngdoh, who had sought disqualification of the 12 MLAs for defecting to the All India Trinamool Congress, is still lying pending in the court of the Assembly Speaker, Metbah Lygndoh.

“…better to come early as you never know what kind of decision will be taken by the Speaker. So we request Mukul (and his group) to rejoin the Congress party,” he stated.

When asked, Syiem however said one cannot play politics on the regulation as mandated in the Constitution of India.

“The Speaker has to examine it very carefully so that the spirit of the Tenth Schedule is not lost because if the spirit of the Tenth Schedule is lost, the petitioner may go to the Supreme Court to seek interpretation.

So I don’t think the other party will play politics regarding the anti-defection as it is very much under the Tenth Schedule,” he added.

On Mukul’s allegation that the Congress is desperate to be in power by extending support to the BJP-backed MDA government, the former KHADC chief however reminded that all the 60 MLAs have stood together in the floor of the House to support the Inner Line Permit (ILP) issue.

“So it means that Mukul also was very much with the MDA government during that time. So it is very wrong. I told you we stand on the floor of the House only on resolutions passed by the government but not to give support to the MDA government because the NPP and BJP have failed so how can we give support to such a coalition,” he asked.

Syiem said that the CLP will never give their support to the MDA government including the BJP and the recent statement made by the five MLAs has been taken out of context.

He further clarified that the CLP is only supporting the issues taken up in the floor of the House which include resolutions to urge the Centre for implementation of the ILP and the inclusion of the Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule.

“We stand together on these issues (on the floor of the House) but we will never give support to the MDA government. As long as the BJP is very much part of the MDA, it is not appropriate for us to give support to the MDA government,” Syiem stated.

When asked, the Congress working president said that the recent meeting of the five MLAs with the chief minister was to follow up on these important issues.

“The very intention of our MLAs was to remind the chief minister about the resolutions passed in the floor of the House but it does not mean Congress is giving support to the MDA government,” he further stated.

Further, Syiem said that the Congress has no intention to have any pre-poll alliance with any party because “we are confident that we will come out as a single largest party in 2023.”

“We are clear that in 2023, our party will come back to rule the state of Meghalaya,” he added.