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Conrad Sangma to be chief minister in Meghalaya with BJP-backed alliance

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As the February assembly polls didn’t give a clear majority to any party in Meghalaya, National People’s Party (NPP) leader Conrad Sangma will become the next chief minister of the state with the support of the BJP and regional players. The decision finally ends the uncertainty over who will rule the state.

The NPP founder and former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma won 19 seats in results declared on Saturday. While the United Democratic Party got six, the People’s Democratic Front got four, the Hill State Peoples Democratic Party and the BJP secured two apiece in the 60-member House.

Samuel Sangma, among the three Independent legislators, has declared his support on Sunday to the 39-year-old NPP leader, who is one of the three children of PA Sangma active in politics.

On Sunday evening, Conrad Sangma met governor Ganga Prasad and staked claim to form the government. He presented a letter of support from 34 MLAs to the governor. Now Sangma’s swearing-in is set for Tuesday.

Thus the move put BJP in power in effectively six of the seven Northeastern states, leaving Mizoram alone, where Congress is in power.

The Congress, which was ruling Meghalaya, could manage to win 21 seats becoming the single-largest party in the state, but couldn’t muster the requisite numbers to hold on to power.

Similarly, the Congress failed to form governments in Goa and Manipur even though it emerged as the single-largest party in both assemblies after elections last year. The BJP came to power in both states with the help of smaller parties and Independents.

Conrad Sangma was accompanied by senior BJP leaders KJ Alphons, Nalin Kohli, and the party strategist and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to the Raj Bhavan in Shillong.

“The letters of support that have been received from the UDP, PDF, HSPDP and BJP have mentioned that they will support a government led by me, Conrad Sangma, as chief minister and the NPP has also written the same letter,” Sangma said after meeting the governor.

“A name for the coalition is yet to be decided,” said the NPP national president and Lok Sabha MP for Tura. Sangma has now six months to contest and win a seat in the assembly.

Soon after the meeting with governor Prasad, Assam minister Sarma revealed that one of the two BJP legislators will be “a part of the government”. He also pointed out that there will be “no deputy chief ministers”.

Sarma took a jibe at the Congress, saying, “The number (of the alliance) is likely to go up. Rahul Gandhi sent four senior party leaders to Shillong without any calculations on government formation. I don’t see maturity in him.”

However, according to speculations, UDP president Donkupar Roy will become speaker. Roy revealed to the reporters earlier in the day that his party would support the NPP to form a “non-Congress” government.

Congress leader Mukul Sangma, who was chief minister for eight long years, submitted his resignation to the governor and taunted the BJP for attempting to form the government with just two members.

“They want to fire from the shoulder of other political parties,” the outgoing chief minister said.

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