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Meghalaya : Assembly polls delay Rymbai decision |
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In Meghalya, suspense continues over the replacement of Chief Minister J.D. Rymbai. Reports say, a final decision on whether he will continue in the hot seat has been deferred till the end of Assembly polls taking place next month.
Summoned by party president Sonia Gandhi a couple of days ago for a decision on who will be the Chief Minister, Rymbai and Lapang rushed to the national capital to call on Sonia Gandhi. They wanted her decision on counting of votes for the secret ballot on who will occupy the hot seat.
Busy with the forthcoming Assembly elections in different states and unaware of coalition parties hobnobbing with the Opposition in Meghalaya to topple the government, Sonia Gandhi has refused to grant the leaders an audience.
As the leadership crisis continues, former Lok Sabha Speaker and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP from Tura, P. A. Sangma emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the political flux. Reports say he is going all out to capitalise on the confusion.
“He has played his cards well and is ensuring that he gets the maximum mileage from the situation,” a senior Congress functionary said in Shillong.
Contrary to what the Garo leader has been saying, especially about supporting Rymbai, the Congress camp is convinced that he is actually executing a plan to wrest power before the next Assembly polls.
“Sangma has extended support to Rymbai only to ensure his fall from grace, as he knows that Sonia will never bless anybody whom Sangma supports. He wants chaos in the state unit of the party ahead of next year’s Assembly elections so that his party can gain,” the party leader said.
Rymbai’s fate - his predecessor D.D. Lapang and former Deputy Chief Minister Mukul Sangma are challenging him - is sealed in an envelope that contains the votes of 28 Congress MLAs, including a postal ballot sent by legislator Friday Lyngdoh from Vellore.
Sonia has yet to open the envelope, which was carried to New Delhi by Ved Prakash, the AICC secretary in charge of Meghalaya.
The Congress MLAs voted on January 17 following an AICC directive to Rymbai and Lapang to prove their claim of majority support within the Congress Legislature Party.
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