How BJP stole a march on Congress in Meghalaya

SHILLONG: For Congress, it was a case of so-near-yet-so-far in Meghalaya. Despite being the single largest party, Congress could not stop its opponents, especially BJP, from forming the government here.
The political developments since Saturday, when Meghalaya threw up a fractured mandate, were reminiscent of what happened in Manipur and Goa earlier.

In Manipur, Congress had won 28 out of 60 seats but was completely outmanoeuvred by BJP in the government formation exercise. Similarly, it failed to stop BJP from taking over Goa even though it had 17 of the 40 seats there.

Fearing a repetition of the Manipur and Goa episodes, Congress this time was proactive and rushed top negotiators such as Ahmed Patel, Kamal Nath and CP Joshi as soon as the election results started trickling in. Its chief minister, Mukul Sangma, too, worked very hard to keep BJP out of power.

What put Congress in a disadvantageous position was its inability to keep regional parties on its side when it was in power for almost a decade.

In stark contrast, BJP had more or less ready-made partners.

If NPP is its partner at the Centre, UDP is a constituent of North East Democratic Alliance, a regional version of NDA headed by BJP strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Likewise, UDP was an electoral ally of HSPDP. In other words, the regional parties that Congress was trying to win over were directly or indirectly linked to BJP.

As soon as they failed to broker a deal with the regional forces, Patel, Nath and Joshi reportedly left Shillong. On Saturday night, they had met the governor to ask him to invite the single largest party to form the government.

Sarma, who is often credited with BJP's victory in Assam, Manipur and Tripura, seemed to have the last laugh again. "They (Congress) could not do anything even in 24 hours," he said while referring to Congress's attempts to form the government.