Sonia asks Rymbai to step down

Congress president Sonia Gandhi today asked Meghalaya Chief Minister JD Rymbai to step down from the CM’s post. Rymbai had a meeting with Sonia today in New Delhi and was asked by the Congress chief to make way for former CM D D Lapang.

“I will follow Madam Sonia Gandhi’s directive and step down as CM… I will be reaching Shillong on March 8 and if Governor MM Jacob is available, I will put in my papers that day itself,” Rymbai told The Indian Express over telephone from New Delhi. On whether the Congress party would remain united after his resignation, he said that remains to be seen.

AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes and secretary Ved Prakash had come to Shillong to convey the message that Sonia wanted Rymbai to step down from the CM’s post.

However, Rymbai and his loyalists Congress MLAs, Home Minister RG Lyngdoh and CLP secretary Charles Pyngrope, had said that Rymbai will resign only if a written communication was delivered to him asking him to resign by Sonia. They claimed the two AICC leaders had flouted procedure by asking Rymbai to resign all of a sudden.