AICC in a fix over political crisis in Meghalaya

New Delhi, July 26 (UNI) The AICC seems to be in a bind over the demand for a change in leadership in Meghalaya where Chief Minister J D Rymbai took charge only 45 days ago, replacing D D Lapang.

Mr Lapang had meetings here with Mr Oscar Fernandes, who is in charge of party affairs in the North East, over the past two days.

He also met Congress President Sonia Gandhi's political Secretary Ahmed Patel and is likely to meet Ms Gandhi tonight or tomorrow morning.

Sources close to Mr Lapang claimed here that Mr Rymbai now enjoyed the support of only seven out of the 29 Congress MLAs in the 60-member legislative assembly.

Claiming the support of 22 Congress MLAs, Mr Lapang has been camping in the capital with 17 MLAs, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker. During the meeting with Mr Fernandes, Mr Lapang and his supporters reportedly demanded the removal of Mr Rymbai.

Meanwhile, Mr Sharif Laskar, a senior youth congress leader from Meghalaya, told UNI over telephone that the supporters of Mr Lapang were very "adamant" that they would not settle for anything less than the removal of the present Chief Minister.

Faced with stiff resistance from his colleagues, Chief Minister Rymbai came to Delhi and complained to Mr Fernandes about his inability to run the state administration smoothly. State Congress chief O L Nongtdu also accompanied Mr Rymbai during the meeting here on Sunday.

Mr Nongtdu, however, was not part of the Lapang delegation. He has reportedly gone to Vellore in Tamil Nadu in connection with the treatment of his daughter.

UNI BKS SH AT VV1927