Shillong: With the revolt in Meghalaya
Congress refusing to die down, Chief Minister D D Lapang on Wednesday rushed to the national capital where he would meet top AICC leaders in a bid to placate the rebels.
Lapang will meet AICC secretary in-charge of
Meghalaya, Luizinho Falerio and Shillong MP and Union Minister
of State for Water Resources Vincent Pala, who are reportedly
mediating between the rebel MLAs and the Congress High
Command, party sources said.
Later, Lapang may also meet Congress president Sonia
Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel and if need be, even
the Congress chief, they said.
Most of the nine disgruntled legislators of the total
27 Congress MLAs camping in Delhi demanding accommodation in
the Congress-led Lapang ministry, returned today.
"I will be meeting AICC leaders as well as the
(disgruntled) MLAs and discuss their grievances. It is a
family matter, and there is a little bit of problem in every
family," Lapang had said on Monday.
Maintaining that the High Command's instruction was
the "final word", Lapang said that the rebel MLAs were
demanding that the three Independent MLAs and the lone MLA
from Khyun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement be dropped
and senior Congress MLAs accommodated in the council of
ministers in the Congress-led government.
The rebel MLAs demanded a berth in the ministry and
dropping of the three Independents and Khnam MLA Paul Lyngdoh,
as the Congress and its ally United Democratic Party had
enough numbers to give a stable government.
"If Lapang cannot drop the ministers, he should step
down," one of the rebel MLAs said over phone from Delhi.
Party sources said some senior legislators sitting in
Shillong are also "fence-sitting" and awaiting the High
Command's response.
Lapang had inducted the three Independents - A T
Mondol, Ismail R Marak and Limison Sangma - and the lone Khnam
Mla in his ministry after they were instrumental in dislodging
the previous NCP-led government last year.
The current ruling Congress alliance, sworn in last
year after the fall of the NCP-led government, enjoys the
support of 44 legislators - 27 from Congress, 10 from UDP, two
from Hill State Peoples Democratic Party, one from Khyun
Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement and four Independents.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010, 00:36