Cong CMs may provide post-poll drama

SHILLONG, FEB. 17: When two former chief ministers along with the incumbent are contesting the elections from the same party, the adrenalin of the party members and its followers are bound to rise. The suspense, intrigue and the drama is likely to reach a boiling point if all the three wins the Meghalaya assembly election slated for February 23.

Now everyone reading this story must have guessed that the party we are talking about is the Congress and the three leaders are former chief ministers DD Lapang, Salseng C Marak and the now generation IT savvy and much younger than the two Mukul Sangma.

If the troika wins and the Congress emerges as the single largest party, Meghalaya is sure to witness a political potboiler that the state is never short of, but the one we are presuming will be the biggest grosser of all the political shenanigans.

Everyone within and outside the Congress knows that the two Congress leaders- chief minister Mukul Sangma and former chief minister DD Lapang- have already positioned themselves by having candidates of their choice in the constituencies of their influence so that when they win and Congress emerges as the single largest party, the one with the most legislators can stake claim to the chief minister’s chair.

But nobody is sure of Salseng C Marak’s- who lost the 1998 elections- plot in the power-game if he is elected this time, or he might not have a plot at all and is just waiting to bank on his image that he build when he was the chief minister between 1993-1998.

Marak might not have a plot as of now, but the desire to once again become the state’s chief minister is still burning and alive. He told this reporter, “If the elected representatives and the Congress high command desire, I will not disrespect their wishes and honour it.”

At seventy Marak appears healthier than he looked when he was the chief minister. He said age was not a hindrance and he has no plan to retire from politics. A savvy, soft spoken politician, his politics, unlike others, also threads the gentle path that endears him to his colleagues as well as political rivals.

Everyone, within and outside the government, remembers how Marak steered a Congress led all party coalition government up the difficult path to completing its full five years term in 1993-98. It became the second governments after late chief minister Capt WA Sangma to complete its full term in a state with volatile political track-record.

That Marak had to ward off attempts of late chief minister and veteran regional party leader who was a master political craftsman BB Lyngdoh- who had triggered the fall of many governments- and keep his government afloat for a full term was no small achievement.

So both Lapang and chief minister Mukul Sangma must be keeping a close watch at Resulbelpara- the constituency from where SC Marak lost in the 1998 election but is hoping to make a comeback and provide the political plot for the ninth Meghalaya legislative assembly.- By Suraj Joshi