SHILLONG, March 8: With a neck and neck tussle on between a Congress coalition headed by Chief Minister Salseng C Marak and United Parliamentary Forum (UPF) led by B B Lyngdoh, it is still not clear as to who will win the trial of strength in the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly on Tuesday.A confident Marak said today that he would win the trial of strength with the support of 30 MLAs. Of the 30, Congress has 25, Peoples Democratic Movement three and Independents number two.But E K Mawlong, president of the United Democratic Party (UDP) - a major constituent of the UPF, has also furnished a list of 31 MLAs to support his claim.Mawlong says his supporters include 20 representatives of the UDP, Hills State People Democratic Party 3, BJP 3, Independents 4 and Garo National Council -1.The Assembly election held on February 16 saw the Congress with 25 seats, UDP 20, BJP, PDM and HSPDP three each, GNC getting one and Independents five in the 60-member House.Marak had called on the Governor on February 26and claimed that in addition to the 25 members of his party, he had the support of five Independent MLAs giving their names in writing.Marak had also claimed orally that the 3-member HSPDP had also extended support to him and would call on the Governor later the same day to extend its support to him formally, a Raj Bhavan communique said.The same day B B Lyngdoh called on the Governor and staked his claim to form the government. Besides his own party members, the communique said, Lyngdoh claimed the support of three members each from HSPDP, BJP and Peoples Demand Movement and also three Independents.The Governor requested both claimants to substantiate their claims during the course of the day as it was not possible to postpone a decision due to a time constraint imposed by the need to have a new government in place before march, the communique said.Amidst conflicting claims by rival factions, Marak was invited to form the government as leader of the largest single party and asked to prove hismajority by March 12.
