SHILLONG, Nov 25: In a mass exodus from the Congress in Meghalaya, former Congress Chief Minister and Opposition leader in the Assembly, Mukul Sangma, has joined the Trinamool Congress alongwith 11 other MLAs. It is said that Sangma manoeuvred this operation following his sour relations with Congress leader Vincent Pala and differences with the leadership.

The State is currently ruled by a Democratic Alliance led by the National People's Party's Conrad Sangma, son of PA Sangma, as Chief Minister and supported by the BJP.

Meanwhile, TMC supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday, mainly over the BSF issue. She also remarked to reporters that it is not essential to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi every time she visits Delhi.

Mukul Sangma had met political strategist Prashant Kishor in Kolkata and Delhi several times in the past few months as his suffocation grew with the appointment of Vincent Pala as the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee chief.

Mukul Sangma is not related to his successor Conrad Sangma, who took over as the Chief Minister in 2018. The latter is the son of the wellknown politician from the north-east, the late PA Sangma, who had started his political life in the Congress and switched sides to cofound the NCP with Sharad Pawar, who had also deserted the Congress over Sonia's nationality, and later formed his own NPP. PA Sangma had contested the presidential election against Congress veteran Pranab Kumar Mukherjee with BJP support and lost.