chokpot bcc members
Congress members of Chokpot constituency in Garo hills of Meghalaya resign en masse on January 28. Photo: Saidul Khan

Angered over the decision of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to allot party ticket to Lazarus Sangma for Chokpot constituency, members of the Block Congress Committee of Chokpot constituency in Meghalaya on Sunday decided to resign en masse.

The decision to resign en masse came following a meeting of party workers in the village of Chokpot. Members of the Block Congress Committee of Baghmara resigned prior to the declaration of candidates.

The members who resigned said as they were the grass root level workers, they understood the trends of the place better than all and as such felt the ticket should have been given to another aspirant Willie D Shira and not to Lazarus leading to their resignation.

The group that resigned called the decision of the high command as “wrong”.

More than 100 members of the Mahila, Block and Youth Congress have tendered resignation over the decision of the Congress to field Lazarus, who they said was an outsider to Chokpot.

Those resigned included the BCC chairman, vice president, youth president, Mahila vice president amongst others.

“We have been helping the growth of the Congress in Chokpot led by the BCC president, Willie D Shira for the past few years and had hoped the AICC and MPCC would see what has been attained. However, their decision to give the ticket to Lazarus is a wrong one and the elections will prove us right,” one of the members said.

“We are unhappy at the decision of the AICC and MPCC as we had sought a local candidate who understands local problems better but were denied. We have thus decided to quit the party and support our candidate who has a better chance of winning this coming election,” L Ch Sangma, the BCC chief adviser said.

Similar sentiments were expressed by all those that resigned en masse leaving the Congress, which was already in a precarious position earlier, in a worse state.