Election takes place to elect new CLP leader in Meghalaya

Shillong, Jan 17 (UNI) Election through secret ballot took place in Meghalaya today to elect new Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader.

Chief Minister J D Rymbai and his predecessor D D Lapang among 29 party Legislators in the 60-member House exercised their franchise.

Senior AICC leader Major (Retd) Ved Prakash, the party observer for the state, supervised the process.

The envelope containing the ballot would be taken to New Delhi tomorrow by Major Prakash, and the counting would take place there in presence of party supremo Sonia Gandhi.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Dr Mukul M Sangma, who was also in the race along with Mr Rymbai and Mr Lapang, later withdrew from the fray.

Earlier, before the crucial Congress Legislature Party meeting, senior party Legislators and leaders held the AICC responsible for the ''leadership crisis'' in the state.

Ms Gandhi sent her envoy Maj (Retd) Prakash here to hammer out a compromise formula among the warring groups but his visit failed to yield any result.

State Home Minister Robert Garnet Lyngdoh, the man claimed to have engineered the collapse of the Lapang-led government last June, alleged some ''vested interests'' at the national level were behind the political crisis in the state.

'' The main factor responsible for the political crisis in the state is that some vested interests in New Delhi are taking advantage of the few greedy people in Meghalaya, '' Mr Lyngdoh told reporters here yesterday.

Former state Chief Minister Salseng C Marak said the AICC should not have allowed all these things to happen all over again.

'' These developments will definitely have a negative impact on the fate of the Congress party in 2008 State Assembly elections, '' Mr Marak said, urging the party's high command to sort out the leadership issue.

Mr Marak said the problem was not of the Congress party as a whole, but it was only a ''clash of interest among the 29 Congress Legislators.'' Former Deputy Chief Minister and Chairman of Meghalaya Tourism Development Corporation Deborah C Marak held the high command responsible for the ''inner squabblings'' in the party.

She said the inability of the AICC to come up with a concrete solution to the ''leadership crisis'' has led the problem to recur.

UNI