It has been one setback after another for Congress in Meghalaya. Some 600 members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, quit from the State’s East Khasi Hills district on December 2. This coincided with the NSUI in Assam winning five posts in the election of the Postgraduate Students’ Union of the Gauhati University.
The 600 followed their State president Bansharailang Pyngrope in quitting the NSUI, attributing their move to the “business-like approach” of parliamentarian Vincent H. Pala, who took over a few months ago as the president of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC).
“We were left like orphans in view of the latest political developments in the MPCC,” Mr Pyngrope said in a letter to NSUI national president Neeraj Kundan. He complained that the State Congress chief “does not have any regard for hard work, sincerity and dedication”.
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The Meghalaya unit of Congress went into a tailspin in October when 12 of its MLAs led by former Chief Minister Mukul M. Sangma quit and joined the Trinamool Congress. The trigger for their move was said to be the party high command’s snub to Mr Sangma by giving the charge of the party to Mr Pala.
On December 1, the Congress lost two senior leaders in working president James Lyngdoh and general secretary Manas Das Gupta. They had complained against Mr Pala too. The party is also on shaky ground in the State’s Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, where it is in the opposition. The Congress had won 12 seats in the elections to the council earlier this year.
According to party insiders, most of the party’s district council members have expressed their support for Mr Sangma.
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