GUWAHATI: The former Lok Sabha Speaker, Purno Agitok Sangma, on Saturday said he had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, urging her to replace Meghalaya Chief Minister D. D. Lapang and restrain the Congress-led coalition from going ahead with ratification of the ordinance on amendment to the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) Act in the Assembly.

This was the first time he had written to Ms. Gandhi ever since he raked the issue of her "foreign origin" and quit the Congress.

Mr. Sangma, who returned to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) after quitting the Lok Sabha, said he had suggested the names of the former Home Minister, R.G. Lyngdoh, and Congress legislator J.D. Rimbai for Chief Minister.

He said AICC observer Mabel Rebello had held Mr. Lapang "fully responsible" and the former Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Home, Mukul Sangma, "partly responsible" for the September 30 police firing at Tura and Williamnagar.

Mr. Sangma resigned the Tura Lok Sabha seat in protest against the firing, in which nine persons were killed, during rallies taken out by the Garo Students Union (GSU) to oppose bifurcation of the MBOSE. Dr. Mukul Sangma resigned owning moral responsibility for the firing.

Mr. Sangma told presspersons here that he had placed his demands before Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who assured him that he would depute a senior official of the Ministry to talk to both the GSU and the Khasi Students Union (KSU) separately and facilitate a dialogue between the two.

Asked whether NCP president Sharad Pawar had given the green signal for seven party MLAs to resign from the Assembly, Mr Sangma said they would wait till Monday for the response of the other 17 Garo legislators including 11 Congress members, before taking a decision.

Mr. Sangma said he had met the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani and written to the leaders of all political parties apprising them of the "violation of human rights" and seeking their support on the MBOSE issue.

Mr Sangma, who returned from New Delhi after quitting the Lok Sabha seat, was accorded hero's welcome by the Nationalist Congress Party of Assam, Meghalaya and other States. A convoy of more than 40 vehicles escorted him from the Lokpriya Gopinath Bardoloi international airport to his hometown Tura.

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