By Sujit Chakraborty Shillong 28 August : The political position of the Congress that ruled Meghalaya for a long time, and also that of the BJP which is an official part of the in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, are extremely fragile due to a variety of reasons.The Trinamool Congress (TMC), which exploded into the state’s main opposition force in a matter of hours and is now looking to take over the space that was left empty by the Congress.
Following the fact that the 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs headed by the former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma (2010-2018) joined the TMC in November of last year, the TMC became the principal opposition party in the 60-member assembly elections are just six months away.
The remaining five Congress MLAs, headed by Ampareen Lyngdoh earlier announced that they would be part of the NPP-led MDA government.
Although the NPP is led by Chief Minister Conrad K.Sangma, is a key member of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) However, its relations with the saffron-based party are slowly deteriorating due to various issues, particularly following the detention of BJP Meghalaya unit vice-president Bernard N.Marak, who was detained in Uttar Pradesh on July 25 for allegedly operating the brothel in the West Garo Hills district.
The BJP has two MLAs in the Meghalaya assembly.
BJP members and leaders staged protests in Tura in support of an impartial investigation in Marak’s case.Meanwhile, the party’s members in West Garo Hills organised a campaign to demand the resignation of the Superintendent of Police and the Deputy Commissioner of the district.
In defense of Marak, BJP leaders said that the farm in the case of the brothel is operational since the year 2019, however, the raid was conducted just six months prior the Assembly elections in Meghalaya to smear Marak and to harm his political standing.
In the midst of the changing political environment in the state of hill, NPP supremo Sangma announced that his party would not be in election alliance with any political party and will run the next assembly elections by itself, causing confusion between the MDA allies -including UDP, PDF and HSPDP.
“The NPP has always contested elections independently.We won’t have an alliance before the polls as we have always taken this policy in every election and will not change this time around,” Sangma said in Shillong.
Since the party’s chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee constituted a full-time state committee and the Trinamool Congress has become more active in the politics of the state, and has slammed the MDA government on a range of issues, including the interstate border accord with Assam and corruption and illegal coal mining.
The TMC’s legislator party chairman Mukul Sangma, the state president Charles Pyngrope and other leaders are working hard to dispel the idea that they are an “Bangla” party in where everything is controlled by Kolkata in the event that it gains the power in Meghalaya which is which is a Christian and a majority-Christian state.
In his visit to Meghalaya in June to officially inaugurate the state party’s headquarters in Shillong the TMC’s general secretary for the national level Abhishek Banerjee stated: “Some people will try to portray our party as an Bengali dominant party.However, I would like to make clear that Meghalaya will be governed by the citizens of the state, not by outsiders.”
Meghalaya is comprised of three distinct regions – Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills.
Eight of the 12 Trinamool Congress MLAs hail from Garo Hills and four of them are close relatives of Mukul Sangma.
There are three MLAs in the party who hail from Khasi Hills and one from Jaintia Hills.
Tribal-dominated Meghalaya holds 55 of 60 seats in the state Assembly reserved for Scheduled Tribes, proving that the state of Meghalaya is completely governed by the tribes’ indigenous inhabitants.
In a further important aspect the entire state, with the exception of a small portion within Shillong is governed by the Tribal Autonomous District Councils formed by the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution which is concerned with traditional and grassroots governance, and gives democratically elected grassroots institutions.
The ADCs deal with the issues of traditions, culture and mineral resources, land and forest products traditional knowledge, socio-economic and academic issues that fall under the autonomy of councils.
To further protect the population In the last four decades, there was a huge need for an expansion of the Inner Line Permit under the Bengal Frontier Regulation Act 1873 and ahead of the elections, the demand could become more pronounced.
The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisations (CoMSO) which is an umbrella organisation of over 17 organizations Since the beginning of 2019, CoMSO has been pushing for the approval of the Inner Line Permit in entire Meghalaya.
If the ILP is enacted in the entire state of Meghalaya like in four other states in the northeast that include Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur The state would be kept out of the reach of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
ILP is an official travel document that allows for temporary stays in certain areas.
ILP is a travel document issued by the government that permits the Indian citizen to visit and be in an ILP controlled region for a certain amount of time.
Analyst of politics Toki Blah has said that it’s too early to draw a predictions about the general elections that are expected to take place in February next year.
“The electoral style in Meghalaya is a one-to-one or candidate-centric and not party or organisation or organisation-based.Prior to the selection of candidates from a variety of parties, it is extremely difficult to judge according to party lines,” he said.
Matrilineal culture in the state of hill in which in the assembly of 60 members, there are just four women lawmakers, three of them from the Congress and another from the NPP elected to the assembly in the 2018 election for the assembly.
(Sujit Chakraborty is available to be contacted via [email protected])
sc/bg
