Sir,
Recently, after former NPP member Erwin Sutnga joined the Congress, MPCC working president PN Syiem opined that the electorate is still with the Congress party. Further, Syiem said that party workers were trying to influence the five estranged MLAs to come back to the party. Both these statements show that the reality of the political situation of Meghalaya has still not struck Congress.
Of course, all political parties rely on the posturing of a never-say-die attitude until the day of election results. But in the entire drama that recently happened within the Congress, it is a blindfold that the party chooses to stay behind – both publicly and internally – without acknowledging that all is not well. Even in the recent past, after Vincent Pala took reins, the party has never spoken about reorganisation or a change of strategy, despite a clear miscalculation by the party’s high command when it came to leadership strategy.
At the district council level, the Congress is wiped off from the GHADC, and is sitting in small numbers in the opposition of the KHADC and JHADC. Some of its MDCs are even making moves to other parties now. At the youth level, its president resigned along with a massive majority of other members, literally dwindling its grassroots workers. At the assembly level, its foremost stalwart Mukul Sangma – the reason why the party gained seats from Garo Hills – has made a shift to TMC along with the MLAs supporting him. Its five MLAs are on the verge of joining other parties and have already dissented against the party’s high command. Perhaps, the last string being held by the party is at the parliamentary level, where Pala stays a Lok Sabha member until 2024.
In this grim scenario, without a proper strategy or expression of a mood for reorganisation, if the MPCC is still of the staunch belief that it is going to come out with flying colours in the 2023 elections, then it just explains their current sorry situation and lack of vision. Will reality strike Meghalaya’s Congress? Or will it be another state wipeout for Congress because of the high-handedness of their high command?
Kyrshanstar Mawroh, Shillong