SHILLONG:
The Congress has decided not to take action against a veteran leader for extending support to a candidate of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) from Jowai constituency in West Jaintia Hills district.
Former deputy chief minister Dr RC Laloo, who is also a former legislator from Jowai, has extended full support to former Congress MDC Andrew Shullai, who will be contesting against sitting legislator of the NPP Wailadmiki Shylla in the February 27 assembly elections.
This was despite the fact that the Congress has fielded a retired sports officer Daniel Dan as its official candidate.
When his comments were sought on this, state Congress chief Vincent H Pala said that Laloo has already retired from politics and he had already told the party he would not be active in the party.
“He (Laloo) does not come for any meeting. After I joined as president of the party, he never came to office except on the day when he came for voting,” he said while informing that the party has not received any resignation letter from the veteran leader.
Stating that it has been decided not to take action against Laloo, Pala said the party knew well that Andrew would go and he always goes by the advice of Laloo so it would not be wise to take action against a very senior member like RC Laloo. “I think he should have responsibility and should think for his credibility so I think we will not do anything to him. Let us see what the public says because the election is just round the corner, we don’t have time to take all such actions and decided not to take any.”
Pala has also admitted that Laloo’s decision to support the AITC candidate will affect the party in Jowai and said, “When a man like RC Laloo is working against his own party it will definitely have an effect, but only temporarily. However in the long run, we have to revive; we have to overhaul the party in Jowai as you have seen that the constituency is the worst performer under the present government,” he said.
He said that the Congress has given the people of Jowai a retired sports officer, who is very dynamic and a very humble man even as he added that, “if people go by merit, if people go by wisdom, I think they should vote for Congress. I think we should not have a setback but rather it will give us the chance to overhaul the party in Jowai, which is the headquarters of West Jaintia Hills.”
When asked, Pala admitted that Laloo had failed to ensure victory to Shullai in the 2018 assembly polls.
“He failed last time. I don’t know whether he will keep on failing or not but it is for the people to decide. He lost control last time. I don’t know whether he will have control of his constituency this time,” he said.
On the other hand, Pala said that the word “bhara” is very famous in Jaintia Hills. It means somebody is working on behalf of other people.
“There are people who went right from one MLA to different leaders of the party shifting their sides, switching their constituencies be it in Khasi-Jaintia Hills or Garo Hills. I think this is similar to all those things and this reflects on our community as a whole that we don’t have a strong foundation. Loyalty is a question for us. If people offer money or give us business then we can change our loyalty. This reflects on the overall society and in the future people will not trust our society by saying that this man is in one party today and for his own personal benefits he will go to another party,” he said.
Asserting the need for seasoned politicians to think about the public’s interest and not their personal benefits, Pala said, “I am very sure that Laloo will also think on that line as politics is not ending today or it is not starting today. It is dynamic. So definitely as a human he will think twice and he may change his mind also.”