Sangma downplays Kharshiing’s TMC approach

Staff Correspondent

Shillong, January 21: Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul  Sangma downplayed his party colleague and Co–Chairman of the State Planning Board John F Kharshiing’s meeting with Trimool Manila Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Hussain on Sunday.

Kharshiing met Hasan, the member of the parliamentary standing committee, social justice and empowerment to mobilize support for Grand Council of Chiefs of Meghalaya (GCCM) movement to get a constitutiol recognition as per the instrument of accession (IOA) and the Annexed Agreement accepted and signed by the Indian Union and the 25 Khasi states on August 17, 1948.

Although observers view John Kharshiing’s latest venture as an embarrassment to the Congress party, Mukul Sangma dodged and gave an indirect reply to the querry, “I am not aware of the lobby .But I look at him as a member of a political party although he is holding some post in the Grand Council of Chiefs which is fighting for certain issues,” stated the Chief Minister.

It may be mentioned that the Congress party has not been supporting the issue raked by the John Kharshiing led GCCM. But when pressed with questions on Kharshiing, Mukul Sangma simply stated, “He has taken up his own issue and if he achieved his objective, he can delink himself from the political parties.”

Kharshiing’s idea of having a “party less” Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) found no takers in the United Democratic Party (UDP) and The Khun Hynniewtrep tiol Awakening Movement (KHM). The Congress and the NPP are also averse to the idea even as they termed the arguments put forward as impracticable.