Cong rushes Patel, Kamal in a bid to form Govt in Meghalaya

With the fate it met in Goa and Manipur last year, the Congress on Saturday rushed its top strategists Ahmed Patel and Kamal Nath to Meghalaya to explore the possibilities of forming a Government as election trends projected it to be the single-largest party in the State. For, trailing closely, rival NPP, along with the BJP, could pip the Congress to the post eventually as had happened in Goa and Manipur.

Patel and Nath reached Shillong and held discussions with party leaders, including Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, who has been at the helm in the State for 10 years. If the Congress fails to retain Meghalaya, it will have a Government in only Mizoram in the North East. And Mizoram will go to polls later this year.

Upon his arrival in the state Patel said that he's confident that his party will form a government in Meghalaya, and it will not be a repeat of the events witnessed at Manipur and Goa as the Congress was outmanoeuvred despite winning more seats.

With Congress chief Rahul Gandhi abroad, the loss of the party in the North East is being attributed to infighting, lack of resources and regular attention from the central leadership, and an ill-managed campaign.

While Meghalaya results have been unconvincing, the Congress' failure to open its account in Tripura and Nagaland only accentuated its decimation in the North East, where its losing trail started with Assam two years ago.  Punjab and Karnataka are the only two big states where the Congress is in power. But then Karnataka goes to polls in the next couple of months and the BJP has made known its intentions that winning the southern State is next on its agenda.

Polling for 59 seats of the 60-member Assembly was held on February 27. Meghalaya has elected a hung assembly and the ruling Congress emerged as the single largest party with 21 seats.

The State results' turned out to be an interesting one as BJP with two legislators is out to form the government with UDP 8 and NPP at 19 in the 60-member assembly.

Patel and Nath sensed "trouble" when NPP leader Thomas Sangma ruled out government formation with the Congress in Meghalaya saying, "no chance of merging with the Congress". NPP is the party founded by former Lok Sabha Speaker.

"Parties like the UDP, HSPDP and PDF have approached us and have lent their support. I am sure the BJP will also come and support us to oust the Congress from Meghalaya. We are working on the permutations and combinations to find a midway in breaking this deadlock," Sangma said in Tripura.

The Congress' vote base shifted to the BJP in Tripura where it had a vote share of 36.53 percent in 2013 when it contested 48 seats and won 10 seats. Its share now plunged to 1.8 percent with zero seats.

While BJP campaigned extensively, Congress maintained a low profile in Tripura to help the ruling CPI (M) which ultimately consolidated the anti-Left votes in BJP's favour. Rahul addressed only one election meeting in Tripura and that too on the last day of campaigning on February 16. State Congress leaders had also complained about the lack of interest on the part of general secretary in charge of North East, CP Joshi in the party affairs in Tripura.

Nagaland Congress chief Kewe Khape Therie also blamed Joshi for the party's dismal performance in Nagaland. The party gave up the elections in this state and had to struggle even to find the candidates. In 2013, the party had won eight seats out of the 56 it contested and secured a vote share of 24.89 percent.