Sonia to take final call on Meghalaya leadership issue: Faleiro

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will take the final decision on the demand of certain party legislators for removal of Mukul Sangma as Meghalaya chief minister, party general secretary Luizinho Faleiro said Friday.

"I am not the authority. I am here because Congress president wants. And it is finally the Congress president who is the supreme leader, and she takes the final decision," Faleiro journalists after chairing a party meeting.

Sangma was among the top Congress leaders present in the meeting.

A minister in the Sangma cabinet admitted that dissidence against the chief minister was brewing among party legislators.

State Congress chief D.D. Lapang, former chief minister Salseng C. Marak and Transport Minister H.D.R. Lyngdoh had recently met Gandhi in Delhi, expressing displeasure at the style of functioning of Sangma and demanded his removal.

The Congress is already struggling with dissent in Maharashtra, Haryana and Assam, with the first two states facing assembly elections in the next few months.

The rift within the party surfaced during the Lok Sabha election when some party legislators and ministers openly worked against Vincent H. Pala, the official Congress candidate from Shillong parliamentary constituency.

In the 60-member legislature, the Congress is the single largest party with 29 seats - two short of majority. The Nationalist Congress Party, which has two seats, and 11 Independent legislators are extending support to the Congress.