Shillong, Dec 7: The Meghalaya Congress has been in turmoil since the appointment of Shillong MP Vincent H Pala as the MPCC president in August, leading to 12 Congress MLAs under the leadership of former CLP leader Dr. Mukul Sangma switching side to All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) last month. Dr. Sangma claimed the appointment of MPCC presidentship was carried out without his or his fellow members consent.

The AITC members did not shy away from taking shots at Pala, hinting their defection to Trinamool Congress was due to Pala. Just last week, about 400 Youth Congress members penned down their resignation and they too had a common reason for leaving the party – “Vincent Pala is our problem”.

Reacting to all these allegations, the newly elected CLP leader Ampareen Lyngdoh on Tuesday expressed that members who wish to leave the party should leave and stop the mud-slinging on the Congress party and its President.

“Our party has a system and every member has an equal opportunity to voice out their concerns… we had so many meetings during the bye-election, none of them (12 members) voiced out their opinion on any of the issues but just a couple of days after the election they just leave the party stating they have issue with the president,” said Lyngdoh adding, “I think our party has given them ample opportunities to voice their opinions… instead they chose to leave the party.”

She said the Congress party has a system wherein one person cannot be elected as the State President just because he or she wants to be one. “It’s a choice of the majority… it’s wrong to come out now publicly and  throw mud at our party president, this mud-slinging should stop,”  Lyngdoh said.

As things stand, the drama within the Congress Party continues with speculations spreading that Congress MDCs from the KHADC set to join Dr Sangma and co.