TMC Meghalaya President and Nongthymmai legislator Charles Pyngrope has called for stronger leadership in political parties like Congress and the United Democratic Party (UDP), following their poor performance in the recently concluded District Council elections.
Talking to Meghalaya News 24, state TMC President said, “The other political parties have to rethink. Congress needs able and strong leadership in the state, which is absent now, with due respect to the president of it. And therefore, unless there are capable people—because, what was the VPP? You must see, people still want a political party, but they want one that is stable.”
Pyngrope pointed out that the BJP has made no headway in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills despite years of effort. “BJP doesn’t have any say in Khasi-Jaintia Hills, so let’s not say that they are irrelevant. In the last 20 years, they’ve been trying, and they can’t get any members in the Assembly except two. In the District Council, let’s forget it—they are all tribal voting, so they cannot get any. But Congress and the UDP need strong leadership.”
Drawing from his three-decade association with Congress, Pyngrope insisted that the party still has a loyal base but cannot afford complacency. “I can speak for Congress because I was a Congressman for 30 years. There is no threat (with the rise of VPP), but you cannot be complacent because Congress has a base. People love the Congress, no. People love the leaders of Congress who are good and honest and who can bring change—then they love Congress. So, there’s a combination of both. I don’t think it’s a threat, but at the same time, you need to work hard. And so does the VPP. If they want to maintain their popularity in the state, their visibility in the District Council and the State Assembly elections, they have to work hard for it.”
Asked his opinion on whether Congress should replace its state president Vincent H. Pala, Pyngrope was unequivocal. “Under the present leadership of Vincent H. Pala, Congress has been reduced to just one member in the House of 60, which has never happened ever since Congress came into power in the state after the regional bodies. That is an indication that he is not capable of building the party or running the party as a president.”
Dismissing the idea of any fixed term for Pala’s leadership, Pyngrope asserted, “See, there is no such thing as a tenure when you are appointed. It was not an election. In the Congress party, as per the Indian National Congress Constitution, you have to have an election every three years except under some extraordinary circumstances. He was just put there. He doesn’t have the mandate of the people—people, I mean, the registered members of the party. Therefore, he has no tenure.”