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Journalism of Courage
The newly-elected legislators of Meghalaya took oath at a special session of the state Assembly on Monday morning. Pro tem speaker Timothy D Shira administered the oath of office to 58 MLAs — 45 of whom belong to the NPP-led coalition set to form the government under Conrad Sangma.
The swearing-in ceremony of the government scheduled on Wednesday will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The House will be meeting on March 9 again for the election of speaker.
After three days of drama, with separate political formations claiming they had the numbers to form the Meghalaya government, all speculations were put to rest on Sunday night as the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the People’s Democratic Front (PDF) extended support to the Sangma-led NPP coalition.
On March 2, the results of the February 27 Assembly election threw up a fractured mandate. The NPP emerged as the single-largest party yet fell short of majority with 26 seats in a 59-member Assembly. However, it managed to overcome the initial hiccup by securing the support of the BJP — that won two seats, two independent MLAs and two legislators from the Hill State Peoples’ Democratic Party (HSPDP). This took the post-poll alliance’s number up to 32, one more than the majority mark, in a 59-member Assembly.
The outgoing Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) chief Conrad Sangma then submitted a letter of support signed by 32 MLAs and staked a claim to form the new government.
However, things did not go according to plan as the HSPDP unexpectedly issued a statement saying that it had not “authorised” its MLAs to “lend support” to government formation. This coincided with hectic politicking by the UDP — a constituent of the NPP-led government from 2018 to 2023 — and other parties to stitch up a “non-NPP, non-BJP” coalition.
Even as Sangma on Saturday confirmed that he had received a letter from the Meghalaya Governor inviting him and his party to form the government, the alternative political formation led by the UDP continued to claim it had the numbers.
However, the Sunday’s night development put Sangma in a comfortable position to form the government for a second term, with the ruling coalition’s strength going up to 45 in the 60-seat Assembly.
Fifty-nine out of 60 Assembly constituencies went to the polls on February 27, after election to Sohiong seat was postponed owing to the demise of Meghalaya’s former home minister and UDP leader HDR Lyngdoh.
