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.