Arunachal dissident MLAs meet Rahul Gandhi

Dissident Congress MLAs from Arunachal Pradesh have met Rahul Gandhi in an apparent reconciliation bid but they stood firm on the demand for removal of deposed Chief Minister Nabam Tuki from CLP leadership to ensure that the future of the party is safe.
Making it clear that they continue to be "devoted Congress workers", 21 MLAs, led by Kalikho Pul, met Rahul yesterday and complained against the "autocratic" manner adopted by Tuki in "crushing inner party democracy and misgovernance in government".
This was the first meeting of the rebels with the top leadership ever since they revolted against Tuki four months ago. One of the major complaints of the group was that the party leadership never listened to their grievances.

The delegation also complained against V Narayanasami, AICC general secretary in-charge of Arunachal Pradesh, and demanded his removal too.
"We reiterated our view to Shri Rahulji that the future of Arunachal Pradesh and that of Congress is not at all secure in the hands of autocratic leader like Tuki and that he should be replaced immediately by handing over the reins to a more matured and visionary leader Kalikho Pul," the dissident MLAs said in a statement.
The MLAs said in their meeting with Rahul, they put forward their stand and and that their differences were with CLP leader Tuki was due to their "unceasing effort to uphold the party etiquette, morality, ethics and dignity".

The revolt by the dissidents led to a political crisis in the state that finally led to imposition of President's rule on January 26.

Congress party, which has 47 MLAs seats in the 60-member assembly, suffered a jolt when 21 of its lawmakers rebelled. Eleven BJP MLAs and two independents backed the rebels in the bid to upstage the government. Later, 14 rebel Congress MLAs were disqualified by the Speaker.
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The dissident Congress MLAs said they were wrongly portrayed as anti-party and as being influenced by BJP.
The rebels said the President's rule was imposed as a result of "misgovernance and lawlessness" created by Tuki and his supporters.

"We further pointed out to Rahul Gandhiji how the misdeeds and corruption in Tuki regime resulted in chaos and lawlessness that has adversely affected the party morale and colossal loss of faith in the party by the people of the state," the statement said.
The MLAs told Rahul that Narayanasami had all along stood by Tuki in "creating all the mess", which is highly unbecoming of a person of the stature of national general secretary of Congress party.
On Monday, the dissident MLAs had said that they continue to be in Congress and have nothing against party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president but against the style and functioning of Tuki.

"We are Congress MLAs. We want a Congress government not a BJP government. We have nothing against our high command. If Tuki is removed from the leadership, everything will be resolved and a Congress government will be installed in Itanagar," MLA and spokesperson of the rebel group Pasang Dorjee told