Hyderabad: The National Peoples’ Party (NPP) in Meghalaya which emerged as the single-largest party winning 26 seats in the recently concluded Assembly Elections may still have some hiccups in forming the government as two legislators who had previously extended their support to NPP chief Chief Minister Conrad Sangma withdrew it on Friday evening.
Besides, TMC’s Mukul Sangma claims his party is ready to cobble up with the United Democratic Party (UDP), a constituent of the previous NPP-led ruling alliance, and other smaller parties to configure a substitute non-NPP front. On Friday, newly elected MLAs and leaders of the UDP, Congress, Trinamool Congress, Hill State Peoples Democratic Party (HSPDP), Peoples Democratic Front (PDF), and Voice of People Party (VPP) held a meeting in Shillong to form a united front and prevent the NPP from returning to power.
The UDP has 11 MLAs, Congress and TMC five each, VPP four, HSPDP two, and PDF two, taking their tally to 29, two short of the majority. After the meeting, Mukul urged political parties to come together and protect the interest of the state to prevent it from being subordinated to misrule and getting the tag of being the "most corrupt" state in the country. While Mukul said that their numbers were "enough" to form a government, the NPP-led coalition is expected to overcome this hurdle.
Sangma had submitted a letter of support signed by 32 legislators, one more than the required 31, to stake a claim to form the next government. The letter contained the signatures of 26 MLAs from the NPP, two from the BJP, two from HSPDP, and two independent MLAs. However, the HSPDP later claimed that it had not authorized its two party MLAs to support the formation of an NPP-led government.
The party withdrew its support in a letter to Conrad Sangma. There was no immediate response from the NPP to the HSPDP letter, but party sources claimed that it still had the required numbers to form the government easily. In fact, former Deputy Chief Minister and NPP MLA Prestone Tynsong has even announced that the swearing-in-ceremony of the NPP-led government will be held on March 7.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will attend the swearing-in ceremony on March 7. Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma who is also the Convenor of NEDA will also attend the swearing-in ceremony. We have a sufficient number and we are reaching out to other political parties. It may be increased to 38-40," news agency ANI quoted Prestone Tynsong as saying.
The counting of votes for the Meghalaya Assembly polls took place on Thursday in which the NPP emerged as the single-largest party winning 26 seats. The BJP also retained power in Tripura and the NDPP-BJP alliance swept the polls in Nagaland.
