ITANAGAR: Just days after the Congress suffered defeat in Manipur’s both Parliamentary seats, 12 party MLAs resigned from their posts in Pradesh Congress Committee on Wednesday.
Speculations were rife that they might defect to the BJP which heads the state’s ruling coalition. However, one of the MLAs, Govindas Konthoujam, said, “There is no question of us joining the BJP for personal or political gains”.
Another Congress MLA, K Ranjit, said they would keep working to strengthen the party from the grassroots level. Similarly, party MLA K Joykishan said they had quit the posts in MPCC owning moral responsibility for failure in the Lok Sabha elections.
Congress spokesperson Ningombam Bupenda Meitei said none of the 12 Congress MLAs had deserted the party.
“They have just relinquished their posts of office bearers in MPCC. They will now focus on working at the grassroots level as we are determined to reach out to the people,” he said.
The Congress had won 28 of the 60 seats in the 2017 Manipur elections. Later, eight MLAs of the party had defected to the BJP which had won 21 seats but managed to form the government through political manoeuvring. One of the eight Congress MLAs is serving as a Cabinet Minister. However, the remaining seven MLAs continue to sit in the Opposition bench.