NEW DELHI: The AICC is inducting Zenith Sangma, besides some young faces from the North East, into the preparatory committee to spruce up the party after a string of poll debacles.
The key entrant into the committee is former Meghalaya minister Zenith Sangma. He has been nominated as the lone member of the preparatory committee for the Congress Plenary from the state.
Sangma, who is former chief minister Mukul Sangma’s brother, has been re-elected as MLA from Rangsakona in Garo Hills following the February 27 Assembly elections.
Shillong MP Vincent Pala was named the working president of the state Congress leadership before the election. He is being credited for the revival of the party in Khasi-Jaintia Hills.
Pala’s role assumes importance since many of the party leaders have either been driven out or defected or even refused to contest the last polls.
The two senior leaders will play an important role in identifying and mitigating the challenges for next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
The other probable faces from the region who will help in smoothening the party’s way to the 2019 battleground include MP Gaurav Gogoi, Tripura PCC working president Pradyot Deb Barma and Manipur MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh. Currently, Assam MLA Bhupen Kumar Borah is the lone AICC office-bearer from the region.
Gogoi’s induction is seen as a natural development as he has been closely working with Congress president Rahul Gandhi for some time now.
Deb Barma’s elevation to the AICC from the state is a consequence of him staying with the Congress despite the BJP making hefty offers to him before the Tripura Assembly elections where the Congress was routed.
The surprise inclusion might be that of Singh who is incidentally the son-in-law of Manipur CM N Biren Singh, a former Congress member who joined the BJP in 2016.
These inclusions are also seen as part of Gandhi’s policy to ensure that over 40 per cent in the AICC are young faces, sources said. The move could also be because of a growing resentment against Congress’s North East in charge CP Joshi under whose regime the Congress saw defeats in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya, and has been reduced in stature to zero in Nagaland and Tripura.
These are also in line with Gandhi’s decision to promote MPs and MLAs where they are given more responsibilities. Pala’s win in the last Lok Sabha polls, in which the Congress lost almost everywhere, has also been taken into consideration, the sources added.
The other youth leader from the region Sushmita Dev is already President of Mahila Congress.
The appointments are slated to be made after the Congress plenary session.
