Congress hopes dashed in Meghalaya polls as its face Vincent Pala goes down

As the Congress fought to remain relevant in the Assembly polls, Pala, 55, was left to do much of the heavy lifting. The Congress, which had emerged as the single largest party in the 2018 polls with 21 MLAs, was left with no sitting legislator after a dramatic exodus to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC).

In November 2021, 12 Congress MLAs, led by ex-chief minister Mukul Sangma, defected to the TMC, which despite not having any base in Meghalaya till then, became the principal Opposition in the state overnight.

In Thursday’s poll results, like the Congress the TMC also got just 5 seats.

Following the defection of the Congress’s tallest leader Mukul Sangma, Pala was left to hold the fort almost all by himself.

Pala, a coal baron (his family owns a number of coal mines in Meghalaya), and one of the state’s wealthiest politicians, has held the Shillong Lok Sabha seat since 2009. This election, though, with the Congress’s weight in the state on his shoulders, he fought his election from the Sutnga-Saipung seat.

While Pala has had a swift rise, the Assembly election was his steepest challenge so far. A former PWD engineer and a businessman, he was the first parliamentarian from Meghalaya to become a Union minister of state, in his very first term. He was MoS, Water Resources Ministry, and later held the portfolio of Minority Affairs.

It was Pala’s appointment in August 2021 as the state Congress chief that is believed to have precipitated the disintegration of the party. It was no secret in Meghalaya’s political circles that Pala’s appointment was not taken kindly by Mukul Sangma, who felt slighted given that he was the more senior leader. Efforts to broker a truce, including by Rahul Gandhi, failed, and months later, Sangma led the exodus from the grand old party.

Congress insiders, however, insist that Pala was only made the president because the high command had already got an inkling that Mukul was planning to jump ship.

A state Congress leader had claimed ahead of the polls, “Pala has risen up to the occasion. He is an MP with 36 constituencies under him. His popularity extends beyond the Jaintia Hills where he comes from.”

In an interview to The Indian Express recently, Pala admitted that the Congress had faced “big setbacks”, but added that it was “an opportunity to start afresh with new and young faces”.

After the Congress declared its list of candidates in January, with first-timers in a majority, Pala tweeted: “Though we had a series of challenges politically, our workers never stopped working at the grassroots. That’s why we could declare 60/60 candidates. Thanks to all the supporters.”

Meanwhile, the Congress leaders said that the party’s performance is “not disappointing considering the circumstances” although they conceded that the results could have been better.

“From where we started – with no sitting MLA and multiple defections – this is a commendable performance by the newcomers,” said Matthew Antony, an All India Congress Committee (AICC) member, who has been camping in Meghalaya for the polls. He, however, also said: “That the party president (Pala) has lost is quite disappointing…but we are looking into the aspects of why it happened.”