Another bad news for the Congress has come from the North-East. In Meghalaya, the Congress lost the tag of single largest party after one of its Members of Legislative Assembly, Martin M Danggo, resigned from the membership of the house as well as resigned from the primary membership of the Congress along with the positions that he was in charge of in the party. In his resignation letter, he said, “I hereby tender my resignation of my seat in the assembly from Ranikor (ST) assembly constituency with effect from June 21, 2018.” He further added, ” …With deep sorrow and regret in my heart, I am also resigning from the primary membership of Congress along with all positions that I am holding in the party with effect from June 21.” He submitted his resignation to the Deputy speaker of Meghalaya, Timothy D Shira, because speaker Donkupar Roy was not available late last night.
After his resignation, tally of the Congress has come down to 20 which is equal to the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) which is running the government in Meghalaya in coalition with the BJP. Danggo is a veteran Congress MLA. His resignation is huge setback to the Congress party. To add insult to the injury, he has also announced in a public meeting in his constituency, Ranikor, to join NPP. NPP chief Conrad Sangma also attended that meeting.
The reason for his resignation is very interesting. The people of his constituency from a very long period of time were demanding to upgrade the constituency to a civil sub-divison. No government paid any heed to their demand until the NDA government under Conrad Sangma fulfilled their demand. Humbled by this gesture of NDA government, subjects of his constituents asked him to leave the Congress and join the NDA camp. The five-time MLA from Ranikor complied with the demands of his people and resigned from the Congress. And thus, the Congress party lost one more stalwart leader.
In the recently concluded Karnataka elections when the BJP was given the chance to form the government in the state, the Congress party had cried foul that the BJP has been offered to form the government because of their status of single largest party. The claim of the Congress party was absolutely rubbish. The only parameter in such cases is Governor’s discretion and it his/her prerogative. The Congress party also claimed that despite being the Single largest party they have been denied to form the government in many other states one such example cited by them was of Meghalaya. Now the Congress party has lost the status of single largest in Meghalaya. This is bad news for the Congress ahead of 2019 General elections. The BJP in the north-east states election completely knocked out the Congress party. The BJP has also made deep inroads into other North-Eastern states. BJP captured the stronghold of Communists-Tripura. If it keeps going like this the BJP would also capture the only Congress ruling state in the North-East that is Mizoram. BJP is gaining clout in North-East and the Congress is losing, clearly evident by the resignation of one of their veteran leader. This time North-East is going to be very important for the political parties in the upcoming 2019 General elections.
