Meghalaya Cong leaders blame AICC for political crisis

Shillong, Jan 17 (UNI) Hours before the crucial Congress Legislature Party meeting in Meghalaya, senior party legislators and leaders held the AICC responsible for the ''leadership crisis'' in the state.

The meeting, scheduled to begin at 1900 hours, will decide the fate of Chief Minister J D Rymbai, his predecessor D D Lapang and former Deputy Chief Minister Dr Mukul M Sangma.

Senior AICC leader Major (retd) Ved Prakash, the party observer for the state, will be present in the meeting to settle the ''inner squabblings'' over the state leadership.

Earlier, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had 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