The directive comes in the wake of the demand of seven Congress MLAs to drop Paul Lyngdoh, the lone KHNAM minister, from the Meghalaya United Alliance ministry.
A senior member of the Congress and Meghalaya PCC functionary today said Paul Lyngdoh would not be dropped from the ministry as the Congress wanted to see that the present coalition completed its full term.
The AICC leaders who had summoned PCC president Friday Lyngdoh to Delhi wanted him to bury the issue and convince the Congress legislators to concentrate on development activities instead of raising the demand to drop urban affairs minister Paul Lyngdoh.
Friday Lyngdoh had a meeting with the AICC general secretary in charge of the Northeast, L. Faleiro, in Delhi yesterday and also met Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
An AICC source today said Sonia was unhappy over the persistent demand of some Congress legislators to drop Paul Lyngdoh only to get themselves accommodated in the ministry.
The AICC maintains if any Congress legislator is accommodated in the ministry, resentment among those left out will surface.
Legislators H.D.R. Lyngdoh, Founder Cajee, P.W. Kongjee, Ronney Lyngdoh, Friday Lyngdoh and A.L. Hek and Ampareen Lyngdoh recently submitted a letter to chief minister D.D. Lapang urging him to sack Paul Lyngdoh for his change of stand on uranium issue and his allegations that urban governance was not up to the mark.
Earlier, they had demanded that he be stripped of his portfolio.
Though on August 24 Paul Lyngdoh backed the cabinet decision to allow the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) to carry on with pre-mining development activities in West Khasi Hills, he later changed his stand and demanded a white paper from the government on the issue.
He had also asked the government to go slow on the project.
Paul Lyngdoh met Faleiro in Delhi last week and explained his position on the uranium issue.
The AICC wanted him to try to convince the people on the benefits of the uranium mining in the state.
The Congress leader said though the strength of the party legislators in the 60-member House is 28, the party does not want to ditch its coalition partners.
