With 12 of Congress’ 17 MLAs in Meghalaya joining Trinamool Congress (TMC), senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said the defections were “like a conspiracy” and said the party was looking into the matter, even as former Meghalaya Congress Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Thursday said that 12 Congress MLAs have taken a “conscious decision” to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Kharge said:”This is happening like a conspiracy. People in the party especially our party president (Sonia Gandhi), Rahul Gandhi are looking into it. They will take a decision.” Several prominent faces of the Congress, including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and Sushmita Dev, had earlier left the party.
Kharge said despite differences, the common goal of the opposition parties is to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “Organizational fights have always taken place. No use of commenting now. Important is to fight together in the arena of Parliament as Rahul Gandhi, in a core committee meeting of floor leaders, had said that parties may have different ideologies but our common goal is to fight BJP,” Kharge said. He said apart from farm laws, the party will raise several issues concerning people during the winter session of parliament.
After 12 of 17 Congress MLAs in Meghalaya joined the TMC, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday said, “This conspiracy to break Congress is happening not only in Meghalaya but whole Northeast. I challenge the TMC to make them resign as Congress MLAs and contest on the party’s ticket. Even if they reportedly joined the TMC, they are still Congress MLAs and it is the Congress voters who have voted them. If they win on TMC tickets, then we will recognise your capability.”
Meanwhile, former Meghalaya Congress Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Thursday said: “We have taken a conscious decision to join TMC. A complete sense of commitment towards serving the people has brought us to take this decision. In the 2018 Assembly elections, we were confident of forming a government, but we could not. Again, post-poll there were activities to poach our members,” Sangma said in a press conference here. “This group of 17 we have, collectively demonstrated our commitment…the commitment towards the state has superseded everything else…we are failing in our duty as far as the role of the opposition is concerned,” he added.