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Cong asks Mukul & MLAs to return due to anti-defection law    

Shillong, Dec 21: The opposition Congress has asked the former chief minister Mukul Sangma and 11 other MLAs, to return to the party as nothing can be predicted about their safety under anti-defection law.

However, Mukul is confident that the anti-defection law will not be applicable to them due to the ‘conscious merger of 12 Congress MLAs with AITC” as he left it to the Speaker to decide on the matter.

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Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the  Congress Committee of East Khasi Hills, the MPCC working president Pynshngain N Syiem said, “I saw Mukul was requesting all the five MLAs to join the AITC but we also request Mukul and his group to come back to the Congress.”

He said as the petition filed by the CLP leader Ampareen Lyngdoh, against the 12 defected MLAs is pending, “it will be better for them to come early as you never know what kind of decision will be taken by the Speaker. So we request Mukul (and his group) to rejoin the Congress party,” he said.

Syiem said one cannot play politics on the regulation as mandated in the Constitution of India.

“The Speaker has to examine it very carefully so that the spirit of the Tenth Schedule is not lost because if the spirit of the Tenth Schedule is lost, the petitioner may go to the Supreme Court to seek interpretation,” he added.

No support to NPP

The Congress also maintained that it will never support the National People’s Party (NPP)-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government so long as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is part of the coalition.

Regarding Mukul’s allegation that the Congress is desperate to be in power by extending support to the BJP-backed MDA government, the former KHADC chief reminded that all the 60 MLAs stood together on the floor of the House to support the ILP issue.

“So it means that Mukul also was very much with the MDA government during that time. So it is very wrong. I told you we stand on the floor of the House only on resolutions passed by the government but not to give support to the MDA government because the NPP and BJP have failed so how can we give support to such a coalition,” he asked.

Syiem said that the CLP will never give their support to the MDA government including the BJP and the recent statement made by the five MLAs has been taken out of context.

He clarified that the CLP is only supporting the issues taken up on the floor of the House which include resolutions to urge the Centre for implementation of the ILP and the inclusion of the Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule.

“We stand together on these issues but we will never give support to the MDA government. As long as the BJP is very much part of the MDA, it is not appropriate for us to give support to the MDA government,” Syiem said.

He said the Congress has no intention to have pre-poll alliance with any party because “we are confident that we will come out as a single largest party in 2023.”

“We are clear that in 2023, our party will come back to rule the state of Meghalaya,” he said.

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