GUWAHATI: The Congress has geared up for the assembly polls in Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya slated to be held early next year by bestowing the charge of senior observer on AICC general secretary and party MP Mukul Wasnik.
The AICC, in a media release on Monday, stated that along with Wasnik, two observers have been appointed for each of the three northeastern states. The release issued by AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has made the appointments with immediate effect.
Former president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee Arvinder Singh Lovely and Lok Sabha MP from Barpeta (Assam) Abdul Khaleque have been given charge of Tripura, whereas party MP from Kerala, Benny Behnan and ex-MP JD Seelam got the charge of Meghalaya. Senior party leaders Francisco Sardinha and K Jayakumar, both MPs, will oversee the Nagaland affairs as observers.
“The AICC has not yet finalised any plan for allying with any party for the northeastern states. In the first half of January, the observers are likely to tour the NE states they are in charge of,” one of the observers told TOI, on condition of anonymity. AICC insiders further added that the opinion of the state PCCs is going to be vital as far as coalition strategy is concerned.
Views have emerged within the Congress to repeat last year’s West Bengal-like coalition where the grand old party allied with the Left front, especially in case of Tripura. A senior Congress leader, however, said in Meghalaya and Nagaland they are still in a dilemma.
Scores of Congress leaders and workers have joined the ruling National Peoples’ Party (NPP) and TMC in Meghalaya in recent months after they lost hope in the party leadership.
The BJP is leading the saffron coalition in Tripura, while in Meghalaya and Nagaland it is an alliance partner in the ruling coalitions led by the NPP and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP). On the other hand, after multiple defeats in assemblies and local body polls, the Congress is struggling to find a viable alliance against the BJP and its allies. Nevertheless, the Congress is hopeful of regaining its lost bastion, the northeast.
“Mukul Wasnik is a very experienced leader of the Congress and he has got a deep understanding of electoral politics of the northeast, including these three states. Under his leadership, the Congress will be able to forge a way forward for winning the elections in the three poll-bound states,” said Pradyut Bordoloi, Congress MP and convener of the North East Congress Coordination Committee.
The Congress has been out of power in Nagaland for the last two decades but Nagaland PCC president K Therie has called for a ‘secular front’ ahead of the polls to revive its fortunes. Even as the Congress is trying to regain its lost ground in Meghalaya, the resignation of its heavyweight leader and former minister Ampareen Lyngdoh from the party earlier this month came as a jolt.
The Congress rule in Tripura is now a history as it ended in 1993. The party failed to win even a single seat in the 2018 polls. However, leaders of both the CPM and the Congress expressed their willingness to join hands with anti-BJP parties to dethrone the ruling saffron coalition.
