SHILLONG : The Congress is carrying out one of its biggest organisational exercises in Meghalaya after losing all representation in the 60-member Assembly, with a new state team and committees being put in place ahead of the Shillong Lok Sabha bypoll and the 2028 Assembly election.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has approved new appointments to the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee under the party’s Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan.
Vincent H. Pala will continue as MPCC president. Deborah C. Marak and Khranglin Lyngkhoi Tbn have been named working presidents, while Tura Lok Sabha MP Saleng A. Sangma has been appointed senior vice-president. Boniface Bamon, Boldness L. Nongrum and Omarlin Kyndiah will serve as vice-presidents. Wansuk Syiem, Sanjay Das and Brigady N. Marak have been appointed general secretaries.
The party has also constituted four committees to handle its political affairs, election planning, disciplinary matters and manifesto preparation.
Former Tamil Nadu Congress leader A. Chellakumar will head the Political Affairs Committee, while Pala will chair the Pradesh Election Committee. Khranglin Lyngkhoi Tbn will lead the Disciplinary Action Committee, with Wansuk Syiem as convener.
Saleng A. Sangma will head the Manifesto Committee and Sanjay Das will serve as its convener. The restructuring extends to the district level. Lawanpynshngain War has been appointed president of the Eastern West Khasi Hills District Congress Committee, C.B. Syiem will head Ri-Bhoi and Princeco M. Marak will lead the South West Garo Hills unit.
The changes come after a steep fall in Congress’s electoral strength over the past decade.
The party won 29 of Meghalaya’s 60 Assembly seats in 2013 with 34.78% of the vote. Five years later, it remained the largest single party with 21 seats and 28.5% vote share, although it could not form the government.
The 2023 election brought a much sharper decline. Congress won only five seats and received 13.14% of the vote, losing 16 seats compared with 2018. The party also faced a major split after former chief minister Mukul Sangma and 11 other Congress MLAs moved to the Trinamool Congress in 2021.
Three of the five Congress MLAs elected in 2023 joined the NPP in August 2024. Ronnie V. Lyngdoh, who remained the party’s only MLA after those defections, joined the NPP in July 2025. Congress was left without an MLA in the Assembly.
The party has nevertheless retained parliamentary representation. Saleng A. Sangma won the Tura Lok Sabha seat in 2024 with 383,919 votes, defeating NPP candidate Agatha Sangma by 155,241 votes. The Shillong result was much weaker for Congress. Pala polled 199,168 votes, or 19.19%, while VPP candidate Ricky A.J. Syngkon won with 571,078 votes, securing 55.02%.
LS seat is now vacant following Syngkon’s death on February 19 this year. The Congress is preparing Pala for the bypoll, while the VPP and NPP have already announced their candidates. The UDP has also entered the contest, making the seat a multi-cornered fight once the Election Commission announces the schedule.
Pala has said the party has been working on its grassroots organisation for several months and is relying on house meetings and local-level contact instead of large public rallies until the poll schedule is declared.
The district restructuring is part of the same organisational exercise. The Congress’s March appointments covered Meghalaya’s District Congress Committees after AICC observers reviewed local units, consulted party functionaries and submitted reports before the new presidents were selected.
The new MPCC leadership now has to rebuild a party that still has a parliamentary presence but no MLA in the state Assembly. Its immediate test is the upcoming Shillong Lok Sabha bypoll, while the larger target remain the 2028 Assembly election.
