The Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) attributes the split in vote share due to the desertion of all the legislators has led to the poor performance of the party in the recently held Assembly elections.
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ronnie V. Lyngdoh on Wednesday said the party had very little time to organise itself after the big political blow.
“Just before the elections a lot of MLAs left the party and then we had very little time to organise and identify winnable candidates and I think the votes also got split,” Lyngdoh told reporters in Shillong.
In 2018, the Congress party emerged as the largest single party in the Meghalaya assembly election, but its tally of 21 seats fell well short of the halfway mark in the 60-member legislature. However, the first blow the party suffered was after its legislator from Ranikor, MM Danggo resigned and joined the NPP. The demise of its three prominent legislators has shrinked the party seat to 17.
The major blow to the party was when in November 2021, as many as 12 legislators led by former Chief Minister and then CLP leader Dr. Mukul Sangma deserted Congress and merged with All India Trinamool Congress.
Amidst all the development, reportedly, the vote share of the opposition congress has split between Congress and AITC.
Today both the parties have five legislators each in the house of 59. Of the 5 seats, the Congress won four from Khasi-Jaintia Hills region and one from Garo Hills.
“Yes some of our candidates lost not by huge margin but by small margin,” the senior Congress leader said.
After the exit of 12 legislators, the remaining five extended support to the NPP led MDA government in the state where BJP was also an alliance partner. This has led to the suspension of the MLAs.
The last nail in the coffin was when the three Congress legislators left the party and contested from the NPP and two from the United Democratic Party.
However, Lyngdoh said if analysed carefully in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region, the National People’s Party (NPP) was rejected since they got only eight out of the 36 seats.
“…if you look at it carefully in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region, the National People’s Party (NPP) was rejected as they got only 8 seats out of 36. I think if you ask us that question, you can ask the NPP too because they were practically rejected by the people of Khasi-Jaintia Hills,” the CLP leader added.