Union minister for tribal affairs Paty Ripple Kyndiah hardly created ripples in his long political career since 1970 but his son Waibha Kyndiah is already doing it even before winning an election.

Not that Kyndiah junior did or said something politically incorrect. But it is his name — the surname, to be precise — that is creating all the problems for the 53-year-old ahead of the March 3 assembly polls in Meghalaya.

Waibha is the ruling Congress’ bet for Nongkrem —one of Meghalaya’s 55 assembly constituencies reserved for tribal candidates. But the tribal identity of the minister’s son has come under scanner.

A local NGO, Ka Seng Tip Kur Tip Kha U Khasi, has argued that Waibha has ceased to be a tribal, as he did not take his mother’s surname and preferred that of his father instead.

Being a Kyndiah may be politically advantageous in the hill-State, but the matrilineal system of the Khasis — the tribe that the union minister’s family belonged to — require all to take his or her mother’s surname.

The dominant Khasis as well as two other major tribes of Meghalaya — Garos and Jaintias — are all matrilineal. The women of the three tribes inherit family property, with the largest share generally going to the youngest daughters.

The senior Kyndiah himself went by the tribal custom and took the surname of his mother, Sandrina Kyndiah. The NGO has moved the court of the Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills with a petition challenging the tribal status of Waibha. The Deputy Commissioner is likely to deliver his ruling on February 22.

The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council has already ruled that Waibha did violate the Khasi Social Custom of Lineage Act 1997 and hence ceased to be a Khasi.

“I never dropped my mother’s surname from my name. All my testimonials carry my name as Waibha Khyriem Kyndiah, with Khyriem being my mother’s surname,” says the junior Kyndiah. He put his mother’s surname along with that of his father in the nomination papers too.

“The Khasi Lineage Act says that we must have our mothers’ surnames only,” scoffs another local Congress leader, H S Shylla.

Shylla himself triggered the controversy over Waibha’s ST status, after the latter beat him to get the Congress nomination for Nongkrem.

Waibha, however, is looking beyond the controversy. “If elected, my first priority would be to make safe drinking water available in every household of Nogkrem,” he said.