Setback for Rymbai as Congress puts off CLP meet

In a move that has caught political observers here by surprise, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has directed Chief Minister JD Rymbai to postpone the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting which was scheduled to be held today. The decision is an indication that Rymbai is still on a shaky wicket and has not been able to overcome the challenges posed by former chief minister DD Lapang’s loyalists.

CLP secretary Charles Pyngrope told The Indian Express today that the decision to postpone the CLP meeting was conveyed by AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes last night. As Congress dissidents have besieged AICC president Sonia Gandhi with demands to replace Rymbai with Lapang, a confrontation between the two camps was being anticipated during the meeting. The high command probably thought it was better to postponed the meet to avoid any embarrassment to the party.

This is the second time that the CLP meeting has been postponed during Rymbai’s tenure. The meet was earlier deferred fearing the absence of most Congress legislators and Lapang loyalists. The Congress high command had then dispatched AICC secretary and observer Ved Marwah to Shillong to sort out the differences between the two warring camps.

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The internal bickering is all the more worrying for party leaders as polls in Meghalaya are schedule to be held in fifteen months’ time. A Congress leader in New Delhi told The Indian Express that Ved Prakash, during his visit to Shillong, had said that the infighting didn’t augur well for the party.

The leader added that the high command was not interested in a change of guard with the elections just one-and-half-year away.