Leadership Change issue: Meghalaya Congress bats for Gandhi family

SHILLONG | AUG 24, 2020:

The Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has backed the Gandhi family on the issue of leadership change brought forward by a section of central party leaders.

"We are behind All India Congress Committee (AICC) interim president, Sonia Gandhi and our senior leader Rahul Gandhi on this issue. We feel the timing of the demand of change of leadership is highly questionable," MPCC president, Dr. Celestine Lyngdoh told TNT-The Northeast Today here on Monday, August 24.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, on Monday witnessed volatile scenes with several senior leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, even offered to resign.

The CWC meeting came weeks after a stormy huddle of Congress Rajya Sabha MPs in which certain leaders sought introspection on the 2019 poll debacle.

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After that, a bunch of leaders wrote the letter to Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi on the issue of leadership change and elections in the CWC.

It may be mentioned that Haryana Congress leader Kumari Selja called the leaders who wrote the letter as "agents of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)".

Reacting to this, the Meghalaya Congress state president said, "It will be difficult to say from here on the movements and activities of the section of the party leaders."

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader, Ampareen Lyngdoh said that this whole thing has been miscommunicated.

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According to her, senior leaders of the Congress, who were all loyalists to the party, had mentioned about the interim president in the letter addressed to Sonia Gandhi.

She stated that senior leaders had mentioned that if the one-year period has ended, then they should find a new president adding that the senior leaders have not said that AICC interim president should take the initiative.

"The letter was written in the context that the interim period of one year was coming to an end and the party is yet to start the process to elect a full fledged president of the AICC," Ampareen, who is also an MLA of the party, stated.

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She stated that Sonia Gandhi has already requested the party to immediately begin the procedure and the process for the installation of selection and election of the president during the meeting of the CWC which was held today.

"She (Sonia Gandhi) has stated that she can no longer be the president because the interim position is over. However, she urged the CWC to immediately start the procedures for installation of the new president," senior Congress leader said.

On media reports that Rahul Gandhi had alleged the dissenters of colliding with the BJP, Lyngdoh said that the veteran Congress leader, Kapil Sibal withdrew his tweets on the issue, saying that he was informed by Rahul Gandhi personally that the former party chief didn't make the "colluding with BJP" remark attributed to him.

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"There was some miscommunication and they are people who are trying to malign the party. They want to amplify the wrong things. After seeing the tweet… The matter ends there," she said.

Meanwhile, after the storm over the "colluding with BJP" remark, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad clarified that former party chief Rahul Gandhi didn't say that the letter in question was written at the behest of the BJP, neither in the CWC meeting or outside.

In a series of tweets, Azad, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said, "A section of media is wrongly attributing that in the CWC I told Rahul Gandhi to prove that the letter written by us is in collusion with BJP — let me make it very clear that Rahul Gandhi has neither in CWC or outside said that this letter was written at the behest of BJP."

"What I said was, yesterday some Congress person had said that we did it at the behest of the BJP and in that context I said 'it is most unfortunate that some colleagues (outside CWC) have accused us of collusion with BJP, and if those people can prove this allegation, I will resign'," he said.

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