Congress appoints observers for poll-bound NE states

Guwahati, Dec 26:  Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge today appointed a senior observer and six observers for the upcoming Assembly elections in the three poll-bound northeastern states -- Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.

Member of Parliament and Congress General Secretary Mukul Wasnik will be senior observer for three states -- Meghalaya, Nagaland Tripura, party sources said.

MP Benny Behanan and former parliamentarian J.D. Seelam would be observers for Meghalaya while Francisco Sardinha and K. Jayakumar, both members of Parliament would be observers for Nagaland while senior leader Arvinder Singh Lovely and MP Abdul Khaleque would be observers for Tripura.

The Congress now is now not even a formidable opposition forces in these NE states- Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. It has no MLA in Nagaland and Sudip Roy Barman, a former BJP minister, is now the lone party legislator in Tripura.

Two of the five Congress MLAs in Meghalaya -- Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh and Mohendro Rapsang -- joined the ruling National People's Party (NPP) on December 19.

The Congress now has three MLAs in the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly. However, the three legislators are likely to join other parties soon. The Congress had earlier suspended all the five party MLAs in Meghalaya for hobnobbing with the NPP leadership.

The party lost huge ground in Meghalaya after former Chief Minister and senior leader Dr Mukul Sangma left the party with several MLAs and supporters to join All India Trinamool Congress.