Former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma broke his silence over the mass exodus, a day after a dozen Congress legislators joined Trinamool Congress. He said that Congress has failed to make any marks as the 'main opposition' of the country.
Briefing the media in Shillong in Thursday, former Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma said that his former party failed to play any role of the main opposition in the country. "We have taken a decision to merge with the Trinamool Congress who led the group of defectors on Wednesday," said Sangma.
In a late night coup on Wednesday, Sangma along with 11 other Congress MLAs joined the TMC in Meghalaya, dealing a major blow to the 'grand old party' of India. Of the 12 MLAs, eight are from Garo Hills while four are from Khasi Jaintia Hills.
"A complete sense of commitment towards serving the people has brought us to take this decision. In the 2018 Assembly elections, we were confident of forming the government but we could not. Again, post the election, there were activities to poach our members. This group of 17 collectively demonstrated our commitment…the commitment towards the state has superseded everything else… We are failing in our duty as far as the role of the opposition is concerned," he said.
The mass exodus caused a huge political turnaround for the TMC in the north-east as the party, despite not winning any seat in the 60-member state Assembly in the 2018 election, overnight became the primary opposition party in the House.
Sources have said that Sangma was reportedly upset over the appointment of Shillong Lok Sabha MP Vincent H Pala as the state Congress chief in September.