SHILLONG:
Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president and Lok Sabha MP Vincent Pala on March 3 cited his inability to frequently visit the people of his constituency, Sutnga-Saipung in East Jaintia Hills, as the main reason behind his defeat.
Pala lost the Sutnga-Saipung seat to National People’s Party (NPP) candidate Santa Mary Shylla by 1828 votes, the results of which was declared on Thursday.
“Irrespective of the results, I thank the people of Sutnga for their mandate. I fought hard but at the same time, I had to look after the party’s performance in the entire state and didn’t have enough time for people in my constituency; that is the reason I lost,” Pala said.
Expressing gratitude to the people for electing five Congress MLAs, Pala, while saying people still have faith in the Congress, said, “Because they know that if Congress is weak, the society will be weak. We attempted and tried to win more seats but we respect the mandate of the people.”
When asked about the reason behind the party’s failure to achieve a double-digit number, the MPCC president blamed the frequent habit of leaders to jump from one party to another for the debacle.
“Congress used to be a strong force but for the last one and a half years, Congress leaders destroyed themselves and the party also. As you have seen, many left the party and lost the elections; and they might be regretting as well,” he said.
“Leaders swing from one party to another and this has confused the people, thereby affecting the voting pattern resulting in a fractured mandate, especially in Khasi Hills (sic),” he added.
Pala was referring to the 12 out of 17 MLAs who defected to All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in 2021 and the remaining five suspended MLAs who supported the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government in 2022. From amongst the 17 former Congress MLAs who left the grand old party to join other parties ahead of February 27 assembly polls, only seven managed to retain their seats.
They include three from TMC — Mukul Sangma (Songsak), Miani D Shira (Ampati) and Charles Pyngrope (Nongthymmai); Jimmy D Sangma (Tikrikilla) and Marthon J Marthon (Mendipathar) were earlier part of the 12 Congress leaders who defected to TMC but later joined NPP; Ampareen Lyngdoh (East Shillong) and Mayralborn Syiem (Nongpoh) – they were two of the five suspended Congress MLAs who left the party to join the NPP and UDP, respectively.
Referring to Garo Hills, Pala said the voting pattern in the region is less complicated compared to Khasi and Jaintia Hills as they have less parties to choose from, unlike in the Khasi-Jaintia region where there are too many political parties.
“Yes, the people of Garo Hills have given their mandate not because of good work but huge money was spent during election. This is a dangerous trend our state is faced with. There is a huge gap between rich and poor,” he said.
Pala asserted that considering the fact that Congress went up from zero to five MLAs, the performance was satisfactory since the party got 15 per cent vote share.
“In the coming MDC and MP elections, we should do well. Reviving the party is an ongoing process and I think starting with five MLAs is a good beginning,” he said.
Asked about working with BJP, Pala said, “In Congress, we are very clear on our stand – we have no problem working with any political party but the ideological differences with BJP is preventing us to work with them.”
Commenting on the NPP-BJP alliance and their attempts to stake claim to form the government, the MPCC chief said, “They (NPP-BJP) are on the job and other smaller parties will join them based on their personal convenience. That is why it is dangerous to vote for smaller parties – people vote for them because of the ideology of their parties but once elected, they misuse the people’s mandate for business purposes (sic).”