Shillong, March 16: The state government has sought to blame Albinush R Marak, who resigned as GHADC chief hours ahead of a no-confidence motion against him on Monday, for “arbitrarily” issuing the notification mandating ST certificates for contesting the Council polls.
Marak lost the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) leadership because he bypassed the executive committee and the House to issue the notification, Deputy Chief Minister in-charge District Council Affairs Prestone Tynsong said on Monday.
Tynsong clarified that the no-confidence motion is not anyway related to alleged internal differences in National People’s Party (NPP) about allotment tickets for the upcoming Council elections.
He said 21 MDCs paraded themselves before the Governor (against the CEM) and the latter took the call on taking the issue to the floor of the House.
However, Marak resigned ahead of the special session scheduled to hold the no‑confidence on Monday.
“CEM and chairman of the district council is an elected post and it is a constitutional post. If you want to remove it should be inside the House…Prove the majority,” Tynsong said.
The minister added that the breaking point was Marak’s solo move on Scheduled Tribe certificates for election candidates.
He also pointed out that the CEM should have brought the issue to the floor of the House for discussion before issuing such notification.
“Why should he alone sign when this has to be brought to the House? He did not do it,” he said.
“A person as CEM, who does not understand participation or discussion in executive committee or inside the House… this is his failure. Ultimately all MDCs went against him,” he added.
On the party ticket issue, Tynsong noted, “Denial or allotting tickets is common to every party. Just because the party does not give you a ticket, can you deviate from norms? You can’t do that.”
Marak’s resignation cleared the way for D Ch Sangma’s election as CEM hours before the cabinet extended the Council’s term to October 18, setting up six months of consultations on the eligibility issue.
