Meghalaya Cong leader Deborah Marak bats for united front to fight NPP in LS polls

Meghalaya Congress working president and former minister, Deborah Marak today mooted the idea of a united front of all opposition parties to take on the National People’s Party’s (NPP) possible candidate Agatha K Sangma in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections for the Tura seat in 2024.

Deborah, who had earlier expressed an interest in contesting, stated that the decision to do so will depend on the party high command. At least 2 names from the Congress have been floated amongst the populace until now though it is too early for any candidate to be named, not only for the Congress but for any party in the fray.

Speaking today from her residence in Williamnagar, Deborah stated that a District Congress Committee (DCC) meeting had been organized yesterday in Tura to review the recent MLA election and what ailed the Congress.

“It was a fruitful meeting which had most Congress candidates along with district party leaders and workers from the 5 districts. We discussed what happened in the recent election and the way forward. The Congress is a national party and will bounce back from any debacle. In politics there are always setbacks but we need to come back stronger from it and are confident that that will happen in the future,” said Deborah.

She further added that similar meetings would be undertaken in all other districts in Garo Hills with suggestions for improvement as well as the functioning of the party would be provided to the MPCC and the AICC to seek their thoughts.

While there has been speculation on the future course of action of the former CM, Dr Mukul Sangma and whether he may look forward to rejoining the party, Deborah stated that the doors were always open for anyone to join the party, without exception. She, however, clarified that news of her being willing to mediate to bring Mukul back into Congress were untrue.

“Media has misquoted me as I have never claimed that I wanted to mediate in the case. However, if the party high commands asks, as a party member and leader, I will definitely be willing to try,” she asserted.

Talking about the poor performance of the Congress in the state, with only 5 MLAs winning, Deborah felt there were multiple reasons why the party could not make an impact.

“You have to understand that the Congress was divided merely a few months prior to the election which made it hard as we got busy in rebuilding the party. We also lost of a lot of very important members to other parties in the run up to the election which set us back even further. Vote division between us and the TMC hurt us badly. These were among the main reasons why we performed so poorly,” she added.

On the question of what would be the best way forward to defeat sitting MP in the upcoming MP elections, the former Williamnagar MLA felt that there was a need for a consensus candidate to ensure they had an advantage.

“Let us see. We have already been working in other states under the banner of INDIA so if an agreement can be reached, we will have an advantage. Divided, we may just serve the seat on a platter to the NPP. We have to work things out,” said Deborah.

She also pointed that in most constituencies in the state, the combined votes of the TMC and Congress would have won them seats as well as ensure many senior leaders, who are currently MLAs in the NPP camp, would not have deserted the party had there been no division.

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