Shillong, Jan. 15: The dissident Congress legislators have threatened to seek a change of leadership if Meghalaya chief minister D.D. Lapang failed to remove the three Independents from the Meghalaya United Alliance ministry.
Fed up with the delay on the part of Lapang to drop the Independents, some of the dissidents said they would write to the chief minister soon.
“If he cannot remove the Independents, we will start a signature campaign to oust Lapang,” a senior Congress member said.
The move comes after the meeting of the Congress ministers, including Mukul Sangma and Prestone Tynsong, with AICC leaders in Delhi recently.
The AICC leaders assured the ministers that the current composition would continue with the support of Independents. Independent minister A.T. Mondal was also with Sangma and Tynsong when they met the AICC leaders.
According to the Congress legislators, there were many senior party members who were not accommodated in the ministry and hence, Lapang should provide a berth for them in the cabinet.
They said the Independents had become a liability and “their performance was not satisfactory”.
Senior Congress legislator Sayeedullah Nongrum spoke to The Telegraph from Mumbai today and said it would be ideal for the chief minister to accommodate more Congress legislators in the MUA cabinet. Nongrum is part of the Assembly committee touring various states in the country.
The delegation of MLAs who are on tour said after their visit, they might meet the AICC leaders in Delhi to apprise them of the need to drop the Independents.
“There are many capable and senior Congress legislators who are left out and their induction will add to better governance,” Nongrum said.
He added that though he was not in favour of a change in leadership, he did not know the views of other senior leaders regarding the issue.
According to him, it was high time that the Congress, which has the highest number of 28 legislators in the House of 60, should get maximum cabinet berths. The MUA cabinet, with 12 ministers, comprises six Congress members including the chief minister, two UDP, one KHNAM and three Independents.
The AICC general secretary in-charge of the Northeast, L. Faliero, said the AICC was yet to get any memorandum regarding the demand to drop the Independents.
“We have not come across any such demand and we feel that the current arrangement should continue,” he said.
Earlier, the AICC secretary in-charge Meghalaya, Maj. (retd) Ved Prakash, said there was no harm in discussing the grievances of the Congress legislators, but he added that according to rules, the MUA can have only 12 ministers in the 60-member House.
The senior Congress members feel that once the Independents are dropped, they could be accommodated as chairmen of government bodies and corporations or as parliamentary secretaries.