The Meghalaya Congress has decided to reorganize the party as part of its preparation for the upcoming Assembly elections in 2023.
AICC general secretary Luizinho Faleiro has suggested roadmap for strengthening the party in Meghalaya.
The opposition party denied division within the rank and files of the party and resolved to retain Dr Celestine Lyngdoh as the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president.
Party MLAs and party functionaries took this decision during a meeting with AICC general secretary Luizinho Faleiro via video conferencing.
The meeting was joined by MPCC president and Leader of Opposition Dr Mukul Sangma, Lok Sabha MP from Shillong and working president Vincent H Pala and other MLAs and office-bearers of the party.
Pala said the meeting was an initiative of the AICC general secretary.
The meeting was called after some of the party MLAs expressed their views through a letter to the AICC on the need to strengthen the party and ensure better coordination between the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) and the MPCC.
“All MLAs spoke from their heart and gave various suggestions on the need to strengthen the party as well as reorganize the party in areas that did not have MLAs,” Pala said while denying division in the party.
On the letter demanding replacement of the MPCC president, Pala said all MLAs heard the president who explained his position especially as his mother is unwell and she had to undergo some operation.
“The MLAs had written the letter to the AICC on the need to strengthen and re-organise the party but not for change of leadership,” Pala said.
On changing the present CLP leader, Dr Mukul Sangma, Pala defended saying, the Leader of Opposition is in Garo Hills monitoring the situation as well as to start the preparation for the upcoming elections to the GHADC.
The Shillong MP said all MLAs decided to repose their confidence in the leadership of the present MPCC leader, while suggesting better coordination between the CLP and the party, strengthens the party right from the grassroot level and focus on the youth as well.
Pala informed that during the meeting, the AICC general secretary suggested the party to have more spokespersons and proposed a roadmap for the overall strengthening of the party keeping in mind the upcoming election to the State Assembly in 2023.
To the question that Congress MLAs may leave the party as it is in the opposition, Pala said MLAs come and go and some of them left the party to remain in power.
“There are also others who come and join the party. We have another two and half years before the Assembly elections, and it is not possible to say now who will come and join or who will leave,” the Congress MP said.
“We have seen in the last 2018 Assembly elections, some MLAs of the party left just before the elections. Therefore, we cannot predict anything now,” he added.