By Express News Service
GUWAHATI: Suspended Meghalaya Congress MLAs Ampareen Lyngdoh and Mohendro Rapsang resigned from the party on Monday and joined the National People’s Party (NPP), in presence of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.
The two legislators also resigned from the Assembly. In February this year, Congress suspended all its five MLAs in the state as they declared their support for the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) which has the Bharatiya Janata Party as a constituent as well.
In her resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lyngdoh, wrote that Congress had lost touch with the people of the state. “I have been a staunch supporter and foot soldier of the Congress…However, recent developments within the party have led me to believe that it has lost its sense of direction. There has been a pressing need for the party and its leadership to reflect on this. Sincere and honest attempts to lead such self-introspection, I believe, have failed,” Lyngdoh wrote.
“…I no longer believe it is the best platform for me to serve them. It is with deep regret, therefore, that I am writing to tender my formal resignation from primary membership, effective immediately,” she further wrote. Lyngdoh and Rapsang were inducted into the NPP at a function attended among others by the party’s national president and CM Conrad K Sangma. According to observers of Meghalaya politics, it is only a matter of time before the remaining three Congress MLAs desert the party to contest the state elections, in February, on the tickets of other parties.
The Congress had emerged as the single largest party in the 2018 polls but in February, 12 of the party’s 17 MLAs switched over to the TMC, making it the state’s main opposition overnight.
GUWAHATI: Suspended Meghalaya Congress MLAs Ampareen Lyngdoh and Mohendro Rapsang resigned from the party on Monday and joined the National People’s Party (NPP), in presence of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.
The two legislators also resigned from the Assembly. In February this year, Congress suspended all its five MLAs in the state as they declared their support for the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) which has the Bharatiya Janata Party as a constituent as well.
In her resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lyngdoh, wrote that Congress had lost touch with the people of the state. “I have been a staunch supporter and foot soldier of the Congress…However, recent developments within the party have led me to believe that it has lost its sense of direction. There has been a pressing need for the party and its leadership to reflect on this. Sincere and honest attempts to lead such self-introspection, I believe, have failed,” Lyngdoh wrote.
“…I no longer believe it is the best platform for me to serve them. It is with deep regret, therefore, that I am writing to tender my formal resignation from primary membership, effective immediately,” she further wrote. Lyngdoh and Rapsang were inducted into the NPP at a function attended among others by the party’s national president and CM Conrad K Sangma. According to observers of Meghalaya politics, it is only a matter of time before the remaining three Congress MLAs desert the party to contest the state elections, in February, on the tickets of other parties.
The Congress had emerged as the single largest party in the 2018 polls but in February, 12 of the party’s 17 MLAs switched over to the TMC, making it the state’s main opposition overnight.
