After Arunachal and Uttarakhand, Cong fights dissent in Meghalaya?

New Delhi: The Congress party seems to be on a downward spiral, with yet another rebellion in the fore.

After Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the latest state where the Congress’ rule stands threatened is Meghalaya, where a faction of the party has accused Chief Minister Mukul Sangma of acting in a dictatorial fashion, a report in Indian Express said.

The dissent has been fuelled by the party’s loss of Turu constituency in the latest by-elections, which was contested by the Chief Minster’s wife Dikkanchi D Shira

The party members are also disillusioned as many feel that the party leaders in charge of the region are busy ‘fighting personal battles’.

Meghalaya Congress chief D D Lapang, from the Khasi tribe, is said to be leading the dissent against chief minister Sangma, from the Garo tribe, with the support of former chief minister S C Marak.

The Khasi camp has claimed that Lapang is the undisputed leader of the community.

But this time, the party is determined not to let matters go out of hand, with party Vice President Rahul Gandhi plotting hard to quell the rebellion.

Gandhi, it is reported, hopes to contain this dissent by handing out a cabinet reshuffle.

Rubbishing the concerns, Congress leader Narayanaswamy, in charge of the northeast region, said, “Everybody is meeting the Congress leadership, including the Chief Minister. They are getting the support of 30 MLAs and 12 MLAs are supporting us. There is nothing like that (leadership change). Whatever it may be, they will meet the Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) and Rahul Gandhi. They will decide.”

Echoing similar views, Chief Minister Sangma said that the issue was an internal matter, and the party had an internal mechanism to deal with such situations.