Rymbai to contest on NCP ticket against Lapang

Shillong, Jul 10 (UNI) Former Meghalaya Chief Minister J D Rymbai is likely to join the Nationalist Congress Party and contest the next Assembly polls against Chief Minister D D Lapang.

Mr Rymbai had met NCP leader Purno A Sangma here yesterday and discussed about the state's political scenario ahead of the polls, to be held in February next year.

His meeting with Mr Sangma assumed significance in the backdrop of media reports suggesting that the state Congress might deny a party ticket to him.

The Congress is likely to issue a ticket to William Mynsong, a close aide of Mr Lapang and rival of Mr Rymbai. He is also the Deputy Chief Executive Member of Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council.

''It is a tea-diplomacy and I am not ruling out Rymbai contesting on NCP ticket,'' Mr Sangma told UNI here today.

Besides, Mr Sangma claimed that other Congress legislators and senior leaders would join his party.

State Higher and Technical Education Minister Robert G Lyngdoh had decided not to contest the forthcoming polls as a Congress candidate.

Congress sources said Mr Rymbai and some of his loyalists have fallen out with the Congress after the party's high command 'unceremoniously' dismissed his eight-month old government on March 10 last and reinstated D D Lapang.

Senior NCP leaders indicated that Mr Rymbai would fight the elections against Mr Lapang from Nongpoh constituency.

However, Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee President O L Nongtdu termed Mr Rymbai's meet with NCP supremo as a courtesy visit and claimed that it has nothing to do with politics.

UNI