Cong lost main opposition status, TMC gained big in Meghalaya in 2021

Shillong: With over two-thirds of its Meghalaya MLAs joining the Trinamool Congress en masse, coupled with losses in by-polls, 2021 turned out to be a dismal year for the Congress, a terrible downslide for a political outfit that had emerged as the single largest party in the 2018 assembly elections.

The Congress was forced to make strange bedfellows with rival BJP as what remained of its legislature group unanimously decided to support the ruling NPP-led coalition after 12 of its 17 MLAs joined Mamata Banerjee’s outfit, which hardly had any meaningful presence in the state.

Former chief minister Mukul Sangma and his close aide Charles Pyngrope, a former assembly speaker, led a coup against AICC-appointed Congress state president Vincent H Pala. The duo, along with 10 other MLAs, joined West Bengal’s ruling party, catapulting it to the position of the principal opposition party in Meghalaya in a trice.

Sangma’s move left the Congress with just five MLAs. —(PTI)