Cong high command has abandoned party… can’t even contest polls: Meghalaya leader who quit Cong joins TMC

Calling his decision a “sacrifice” and a “drastic action”, Marak said that he thought this was the only way to defeat Sangma, who is also Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s elder brother. “The main idea behind my actions is to defeat the NPP and James Sangma. We are 100 per cent sure that together, we will win by over 20,000 votes,” he said.

Alleging that the Congress currently lacks “the basic infrastructure to contest elections”, Marak said he thought contesting under its banner would be akin to helping the NPP, and that currently, the TMC stands a better chance in the state.

“The party high command has just left everything as it is. I got disillusioned with the attitude. Nobody turns up here, neither the Meghalaya president nor the party high command. It’s deliberate neglect. You can see how star campaigners for the TMC have already come many times all the way from West Bengal. At least, they have the basic infrastructure to run elections. Under the Congress, it’s impossible. If I contest under its banner, neither will I win, nor will the TMC, and the NPP will benefit,” he told The Indian Express.

Marak’s volta face against Sangma came after he, as a member of the NPP, took part in Sangma’s 2018 campaign in the constituency. “I was the one spearheading his campaign in the last election, hoping that since Conrad was not in the fray [he was a Lok Sabha MP at the time], the moment NPP came to power, James would be the natural choice for CM. For a candidate from Dadenggre to become the CM is a matter of great pride for us… But after the polls, he could not hold on to any portfolio given to him. He’s not even fit to be an MLA now. People are really fed up with him and his way of dealing with people,” he said.

With Marak’s defection, the Congress has lost one of the few known and experienced faces among the 60 candidates it has fielded for the elections. In 2018, it was the single party that had won the highest number of seats — 21 — in the Assembly. But by 2012, the party’s position was severely depleted when 12 of the 17 MLAs remaining with it at the time jumped ship to join the TMC. In the run up to the 2023 elections, the remaining five MLAs have also deserted the party.

Meghalaya Pradesh Congress president Vincent Pala said Marak’s exit won’t affect the party in the elections, and that they will field another candidate in the constituency.