304 Cong workers quit in Meghalaya

Shillong, Aug 18 (UNI) More than 300 Congress workers in Meghalaya today resigned from the party in protest against the six years suspension of senior Congress leader and former home minister R G Lyngdoh by the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC). In the resignation letter addressed to the Shillong City Congress president, the party workers expressed shock over the suspension order on Mr Lyngdoh on June 3.

The letter, signed by 304 Congress workers, said Mr Lyngdoh's suspension ''badly affected the party's image.'' The former Home Minister had been suspended from the party after he told reporters that many Congress leaders were ''power hungry and greedy.'' However, Mr Lyngdoh, who was elected twice to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly after his father Peter G Marbaniang, a staunch Congressman and Lok Sabha MP and was also a senior state cabinet minister and Assembly Speaker, had, revealed that he quit the Congress party because of the 'dictatorial attitude' of the Congress high command.

The Congress members who had put in their papers, said that the six years suspension was a ''well calculated'' move to deprive Lyngdoh an opportunity to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha election as Congress candidate.

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