Shillong: Even as the political grapevine Meghalaya is rife over whether veteran Congress politician and former chief minister Dr. Mukul Sangma would shift allegiance and join the Trinamool Congress, the state Congress leadership has said it has no inkling in this regard.
“I don’t know what for Dr. Mukul (Sangma) went to Kolkata whom he is meeting with,” Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president, Vincent H. Pala said, reacting to media reports stating that former Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma holding a meeting with Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at Netaji House, Kolkata on Tuesday.
“I am busy, and focused on reorganizing the party. He (Sangma) is the Congress Legislature Party leader, and he is working for the party,” Pala said, but was quick to add, “May be he has gone to Kolkata for his personal work.”
When asked what will happen if a seasoned Congress leader like Sangma leaves the grand-old party, the State Congress president said, “leaders go and come, and that is the normal process. Those who have recently joined the party have said that they will be working for the party.”
The recent re-induction of former Home Minister Robert Garnett Lyngdoh and former Congress legislator P.N.Syiem is being cited as one of the reasons for Sangma trying to move out of the Congress.
There is a strong move within the party to portray Lyngdoh as the next Chief Minister if the party comes back to power in 2023.
Pala and several Congress leaders have convinced Lyngdoh to rejoin the party and talks were on for several months prior to his return to the party.
Sangma and loyalists skipped the induction of Pala as the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president on Saturday.
UNI tried to reach out Sangma, but he did not take calls to react about the purported meeting with the TMC second-in-command Banerjee.
However, Susmita Dev who joined the TMC after quitting the Congress recently, said that the doors of the TMC are always open.
I don’t know (about Mukul meeting with TMC leaders in Kolkata) because I am stuck in Tripura. Moreover, I cannot confirm or deny about it,” Dev said.
