Cong renews ‘Look East’ policy
Top leaders meet to stop N-E party members from joining BJP
After the dwindling performance of the Congress in the north-eastern states, the party has gone back to the drawing board.
The “saffron surge” in the region has gotten the Congress worried about its fortunes there. In the recently concluded meeting of the north-east Congress coordination committee chaired by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the party has decided on a fourpoint strategy to boost its chances and arrest desertions.
The meeting was attended by general secretary incharge C.P. Joshi, Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma, former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki and other MPs and MLAs.
In the last week, 21 Congress councillors in Itanagar left the party.
Congress has decided to ensure better coordination between the state units in the Northeast to stop leaders from quitting
Four recently elected Congress MLAs in Manipur have also defected to the BJP.
Interestingly, in the recently concluded Assembly elections in Manipur, the Congress was the single-largest party but short of a simple majority. Eventually, the BJP formed government in the state.
The Congress has decided to ensure better coordination between all the state units of the northeast along with the AICC. The meetings will happen regularly and also to ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page with the ongoings in each other’s states. Secondly, there is a feeling in the Congress that old-timers are being ignored.
An effort will be made to reach out to all leaders and workers of the Congress who have drifted away.
They will be assigned tasks and given responsibilities so as to resurrect the party in all the states.
Then comes the issue of exposing the “faulty policies of the NDA government” which are having an adverse impact on north-eastern states.
A leader attending the meet told this newspaper that “a lot of promises are being made but not being fulfilled on the ground. We need to expose the doublespeak. Like what happened to the Naga Accord?”
The party will aggressively campaign and create awareness about false promises. The Congress will also go to the people about how the BJP is trying to destablise its governments. This includes the Arunachal Pradesh government which was dismissed but reinstated by the Supreme Court.
After that the entire Congress MLAs joined the BJP eventually.