‘Mukul safe, all parties have differences’

SHILLONG, APR 23: The impression that all is not well within the Congress after eight of its legislators complained about the unavailability of the chief minister and ministers to state Congress president DD Lapang gained currency with the visit of   AICC general secretary V Narayanasamy – who is in-charge of Meghalaya- to Shillong.

But on Thursday evening after meeting party workers, legislators, ministers and a round of meeting of the Congress coordination committee- consisting of party members and chief minister and ministers-  Narayanasamy rubbished the speculation that there is a threat to the leadership of chief minister Mukul Sangma but nonetheless admitted that there were differences within the party which has been resolved.

A reluctant and agitated Narayanasamy told this  reporter after the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee coordination committee meeting also attended among others by chief minister Mukul Sangma and state Congress president DD Lapang on Thursday evening at Pinewood Hotel, “Dr Mukul Sangma is the CLP leader and the chief minister and he continues to be so.”

Recently eight legislators had complaint to MPCC president DD Lapang about the non availability of the ministers and chief minister in the office whenever they wanted to meet them. The joint complaint letters by the eight legislators is being seen as a hint of “political dissent” and renewed speculation of an attempt to dislodge Sangma from the chief minister’s post by his detractors.

Narayanasamy, however, retorted by saying, “Which political parties don’t have differences of opinions so in the Congress too there were differences which have been resolved before I came here.” But, he claimed, the issue of the eight legislators were not at all discussed during the coordination committee meeting.

Early in the day, Narayanasamy addressed party workers in the Congress Bhavan and later in the evening he met Congress ministers and MLAs. Later he held a coordination committee meeting of the MPCC that consists of the some of the party members and chief minister including some of the ministers who are its members.

The coordination committee was setup to address issues and to oversee whether the Congress policies are being implemented by its government. Congress party workers informed that the committee also thrashed differences that may arose between the party members, legislators and the government.

Coming out of the meeting, MPCC president DD Lapang chose not to speak of the issues that were discussed in the coordination committee meeting. When queried about the purpose of the coordination committee meeting he simply said that it was an internal party meeting that need not be told to others thus leaving plenty of room for others to speculate.

Narayanasamy, however, gave the impression that he was being more candid on the purpose of the meeting by claiming that it was a meeting to review whether the party manifesto was being implemented by the party’s government or not. He refused to talks beyond this and said he will soon be addressing the press.- By Our Reporter