MPCC general secretary (administration) Hareshwar Goshwami said that some of the ‘claims’ made by Laba in the article regarding Congress were ‘totally wrong’.
TFM Report
Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee has refuted some of the contents of an article — Shifting sands of politics in Manipur — by veteran journalist Yambem Laba. The article was first published in The Statesman and was later uploaded in The Frontier Manipur.
Briefing media persons at the Congress Bhawan, Imphal on Friday, MPCC general secretary (administration) Hareshwar Goshwami said that some of the ‘claims’ made by Laba in the article regarding MPCC were ‘totally wrong’. The Congress party is considering taking legal action against the veteren journalist, he added.
Hareshwar contended that Congress did not offer any enticement to anyone to lure anyone to the party. Laba in his article had written that the MLA of Thangmeiband AC, Kh Joykisan was “lured by Ibobi Singh to switch to the Congress Party after reportedly and allegedly being paid Rs three crore”. Hareshwar refuted this and maintained that it was totally false.
The general secretary argued that at the time, when Joykisan was allegedly lured, Congress had a government with more than 50 MLAs. So the question of luring anybody did not arise, he added.
Hareshwar also maintained that the departure of former MPCC president Govindas Konthoujam has not affected the Congress party at all. The mention of two MLAs — Joykisan and Yamthong Haokip — who was said to have walked away with Govindas created confusion to the public, he added.
He further maintained that there was no more leadership crisis within the party. In fact more than 24 MLAs and former MLAs attended the recent meeting, he said and asserted that the party is focused on fighting the 2022 general election ‘unitedly’.
Hareshwar further contended that Manipur-in-charge of AICC, Bhakta Charan Das recently visited the state in relation to the disqualification case of the 12 MLAs and 2022 poll strategy.
Regarding the disqualification case pending before the Supreme Court, Laba had written that “The Election Commission of India, in their report earlier to the Governor, stated that posts of parliamentary secretaries do not amount to office of profit, citing two laws that granted the MLAs exemption. Those laws, however, have since been dropped. The Manipur High Court also ruled that the Manipur Parliamentary Secretary Act 2012 was unconstitutional, but the ECI refused to budge from its stand”.
Hareshwar asserted that the matter is sub judice.
He further maintained that no Congress MLA is going to defect to the BJP. Instead some MLAs from other parties may join Congress, he added.
Read the article here: