BJP NPP Meghalaya Govt Headed By Conrad Sangma Will Be Sworn ON TUESDAY

A delegation of non-congress parties including BJP called on Meghalaya Governor Ganga Prasad in Shillong on Sunday and staked claim to form government in the tribal dominated North-Eastern State. It has crossed a major hurdle in forming government after United Democratic Party has agreed to support Conrad Kongkal Sangma, 40, Chief of National People’s Party as the Chief Minister.  BJP, some Independent MLAs and another party have also pledged support to Sangma, son of short statured Purno Agitok Sangma who was also CM of the tribal dominated State and later became Union Minister and Speaker of The Lok Sabha. He had strained relations with the Congress and had never gone back to it after walking out on ideological ground. UDP president Donkupar Roy said that his support comes on the condition that NPP MP Conrad Sangma would be the Chief Minister. In the February 27 assembly poll, no political party has got a clear majority to form government. The Congress with twenty-one Members had urged Governor to allow to it form government since it is the latest single party in the elected assembly.BJP claims support of 33 MLAs in the newly elected assembly which has elected 58 members to the 60-Member House .Election has been postponed due to the demise of a candidate. Union Minister KJ Alphons, MOS Home Kiren Rijiju and Himanta Biswa Sarma, one of the principal strategists for BJP, were deputed by their party’s High Command to Meghalaya to explore the possibility of forming government in the Christian dominated NE State. The non-Congress parties are also hoping for the support of three Independent MLAs and four MLAs from the People’s Democratic Front.UDP president Donkupar Roy said that the Congress CM Mukul Sangma had come with a proposal to support its claim for forming government  but the party decided to go for a non-Congress government ‘for the sake of stability’.“I spoke to some PDF MLAs and they are also in favour of non-Congress government,” Mr Roy said. The term of the State Legislative Assembly expires on March 7 and before that everything has to take place. Sangma told   reporters before calling on the Governor. Agatha Sangma, 37, younger sister of Conrad Sangma ,has been elected as a NPP MLA .She is a former Lok Sabha MP from Tura in Garo Hills and Ex-MOS in UPA Government. The NDA supporting MLAS who met Governor are  NPP (19) + UDP (6) + PDF (4) + BJP (2) + HSPDP (2) + Independent (1) = 34. The halfway mark in the State assembly is 30.BJP has however made it clear that it was not looking for playing a major role in Meghalaya with only two lawmakers. It will be the regional political parties who should play the major role.(images Lok Sabha archives)