SHILLONG:
The five suspended Congress MLAs, on July 8, said that not receiving an invitation from the meeting convened by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to garner vote for National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) presidential nominee Draupadi Murmu on July 6, only proves that they are not working with the saffron party.
“This goes on to prove that we, the five MLAs in Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA), are not working with the BJP. So, wake up the people of Meghalaya and realise this. That is exactly why they (BJP) were hesitant to call us and introduce their presidential candidate. I don’t think you should rubbish the fact that she is a rubber stamp,” said Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ampareen Lyngdoh.
She, however, admitted that it was somewhat disappointing for the five Congress MLAs not to receive an invitation for the meeting held at Orchid Lake Resort. “Five votes, very small, may be not necessary. But we were a little disappointed and it was not pleasant as we are part of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA). The group of five will sit and take a call (on the matter) and in the due course of time, will let you know,” said
The East Shillong legislature, however, refrained from divulging any details on whether the five Congress MLAs – PT Sawkmie, Mayralborn Syiem, Mohendro Rapsang and Kimfa S Marbaniang – will cast their vote in the presidential election slated for July 18 or abstain from it. “We will take future course of action in time unless, of course, they don’t need our votes, which will be a different matter altogether,” she said.
Lyngdoh added that it was very exciting to see how the BJP has once again managed to “surprise” the nation by bringing in a woman presidential candidate and that too, a tribal leader.
“That was a very attractive and quick-resolve-kind-of-a decision. We were thinking we will go that way, but now that we are neither here nor there, we will take a call on this later,” she added.
Stating that Murmu deserves credibility as the first tribal woman presidential candidate, the senior woman legislator said whether or not the NDA nominee can resolve issues flagged by the United Democratic Alliance (UDP) in the meeting is a different thing and it is debatable if the UDP was trying to earn a couple of brownies points by highlighting the issues they did in the meeting.