Congress dumps Marak for Lapang

SHILLONG, March 21: Bowing to pressure from party legislators, former chief minister and Congress Legislature Party CLP leader S C Marak s...

SHILLONG, March 21: Bowing to pressure from party legislators, former chief minister and Congress Legislature Party CLP leader S C Marak stepped down today, paving the way for deputy CLP leader D D Lapang to take over as the leader of the party in the Assembly.

Last night all the 25 Congress legislators met at Marak8217;s residence with the former Union Minister Santosh Mohan Deb as the All India Congress Committee central observer. Party sources said all the legislators felt that Marak should vacate the CLP leader8217;s post to make way for Lapang. The justification for the demand was that Marak had failed to garner support from non-Congress legislators and secure a majority, despite having formed a government for 12 days.

Considering that 17 of the 25 Congress legislators are from Garo hills, from where Marak hails, the change to Lapang, who belongs to Ri-Bhoi district, was unexpected. But as one of the Congress legislators said, quot;Most of the Congress legislators felt that after Marak8217;s failure, Lapang wasthe best bet to get the party to power.quot; Thus, the change was dictated more by party legislators keen to wrest power from the United Parliamentary Forum UPF government.

With the trial of strength of the UPF government headed by B B Lyngdoh scheduled for next Monday, the change in the CLP leadership assumes significance. With the UPF commanding a wafer-thin majority of 31 legislators in the 60-member Assembly, there could be fresh poaching by the new CLP leadership.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Pradesh Congress chief O L Nongtdu candidly said that the party had handed over the task of bringing the UPF government down to Lapang.

With 25 legislators of its own and four others supporting it, the Congress needs to add two more to its tally to bring down Chief Minister Lyngdoh8217;s UPF government.