Guwahati: Twelve Congress MLAs in Meghalaya are likely to defect to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday, November 25, 2021, while unconfirmed reports suggested they already joined.
The MLAs, led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, were said to have already approached Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh. Calls made to some of them, including Sangma, went unattended.
Congress has 17 MLAs in the state and the defection of the 12 MLAs will have nothing to do with the anti-defection law.
The switchover will surely deal a body blow to the Congress which is batting infighting. The state will go to elections in February 2023.
The trouble started brewing ever since Shillong MP, Vincent H Pala took over as the party’s Meghalaya unit chief. Sangma, who is the leader of Opposition and Congress Legislature Party leader, felt threatened by Pala’s appointment, for he was the sole contender for the CM post if Congress returns to power in 2023.
As a result, the party was virtually reduced to two factions – each headed by Sangma and Pala.
The Congress itself had singled out infighting as the main reason behind its debacle in the recent by-elections to three seats which were won by ruling parties.