NPP's Conrad Sangma stakes claim to form government in Meghalaya

NEW DELHI: National People’s Party (NPP) leader Conrad Sangma today met Meghalaya Governor Ganga Prasad to stake claim to form the next government in the state with the support of 34 MLAs.

The swearing-in ceremony is likely to take place on March 6, reported ANI.

Following his meeting with Prasad, the NPP leader said that his party MLAs are committed to the development of the state and its people.

"Running a coalition government is never easy but I am confident that the MLAs who are with us are very committed to the state and people, and will work towards development of the state," he said.

Sangma further said that by tomorrow uncertainty around the government formation will lift.

"Next 2-3 days are very crucial because Assembly term gets over. The House expires on 7th, before that everything has to take place and by tomorrow everything will be clear," he added.

BJP MLA Himanta Biswa Sarma said that Conrad will be the next chief minister of the state and that there will be no deputy chief minister in the new government.

"Currently we have 34 members, NPP -19, BJP-2, UDP-6, HSPDP-2, PDF-4 and 1-independent. Number likely to go up. Rahul Gandhi sent four senior leaders of the party to Shillong without any calculations on government formation. I don't see maturity in him," said Sarma.

Today, MLAs from NPP led by Conrad and from United Democratic Party (UDP), BJP and HSPDP met Governor Prasad at the Governor House in Shillong to discuss the possibility of forming a government in the state.


Before the alliance’s meeting with the Governor, the Congress submitted a letter to Prasad naming Mukul Sangma as the leader of the Meghalaya Congress Legislature Party.

Earlier today, BJP leader Kiren Rijiju met UDP president Donkupar Roy at his residence to discuss the formation of a non-Congress government in Meghalaya, under the leadership of the NPP.

"We are not a big player here. We have come to express our support to the regional parties to form a non-Congress government," Rijiju told PTI after coming out of Roy's residence.

Later in the day, BJP's Sarma announced that 29 members will meet with the Governor in the evening to stake claim to form the next government in the state.

"How can we have upper hand? BJP has 2, upper hand will be NPP 19, followed by next upper hand UDP, and they are 6. We are in discussion with PDF also. That is why at 5 pm we are going to meet governor with 29 members that number will definitely go up" Sarma said.

An hour before the meeting with the governor, the president of UDP, Donkupar Roy, confirmed his support to a non-Congress alliance with Conrad at its helm.

"As a party, we meet and discussed formation of government. We all decided we should form a non-Congress government, and we have decided that NPP government should be formed led by Conrad as the CM," Roy said.


Yesterday, the result of Meghalaya assembly polls delivered a split verdict with Congress as the largest party with 21 seats, ten short of the majority mark.

NPP with 19 seats had been spearheading an effort to form a non-Congress government in the state.

The NPP had categorically dismissed the possibility of an alliance with the Congress - citing the fact that it "fought against the Congress in this election."

Instead, it said it is talking to "like-minded people."

"We are talking to like-minded people and I will not take names at this stage. Our newly-elected MLAs will have to sit down and deliberate," said Conrad.

NPP—though an ally of the NDA at the Centre-—locked horns with BJP in many constituencies with Agatha Sangma winning the South Tura seat by defeating a saffron party candidate.

Read this story in Marathi

Read this story in Bengali