SHILLONG:
All India Congress Committee (AICC) has made it clear that the party will not be welcoming back former leaders
Stating that he is not aware of any move to bring back former Congress leader Mukul Sangma, AICC in-charge of Meghalaya, Manish Chatrath, said, “I don’t think that my PCC president or any of the working presidents are aware of it,” he said.
Chatrath also said that the five suspended Congress MLAs were not in touch with him. “If they have spoken to (Vincent) Pala that I don’t know, but we have suspended them and they are not in touch with me,” he said.
The AICC Meghalaya in-charge asserted that it’s not in the “DNA of the party” to demean anybody, even if they are their former leaders. “Those who have gone, we wish them luck, we are not against anybody as that is their choice (to leave the party). Now we are organising ourselves, we have good people, we have good faces, we have good organisation compared to any other party in the state,” he said.
Meanwhile, MPCC president Vincent Pala said it would be wrong on the part of the five suspended Congress MLAs to say that they were not given a chance.
“It will be totally wrong on their part to say that we didn’t give them a chance to return. We have written a letter to them asking for clarification; we have called for explanation but they did not reply. And later, to the press they said they are not going to reply. So, the question of us not giving them a chance doesn’t arise,” he said.
Hinting that the party has some surprises in store before the upcoming 2023 assembly polls, Chatrath said that the Congress has its own strategy for the polls and it will stick to it.
“There will be a few surprises. There are people who want to join us, but as of now, let us keep it as a surprise,” he added.