Shillong, March 3: Meghalaya Governor Phagu Chauhan on Friday invited the National People’s Party (NPP), the single largest party in the House with 26 seats, to form the government in the state.
“The Governor has invited us (to form the government),” newly elected parliamentary party leader of the NPP, Conrad K Sangma, told reporters after meeting the Governor at Raj Bhavan. He also submitted his registration as the Chief Minister to the Governor.
Submitted the letter of resignation as Chief Minister of Meghalaya to Hon’ble Governor, Sh. Shri Phagu Chauhan Ji, also staking a claim to form the new Government. pic.twitter.com/Lw1VOSzpfT
— Conrad K Sangma (@SangmaConrad) March 3, 2023
He was accompanied by the NPP MLAs, 2 BJP MLAs – Sanbor Shullai and AL Hek – and 1 Independent MLA of Baghmara Kartush R Marak.
NPP currently has 29 MLAs – 26 of their own and the formal support of 2 BJP MLAs and 1 independent MLA.
Sangma informed that the NPP will immediately submit the list of MLAs by evening. According to him, most of the NPP MLAs are still on their way to Shillong since the results were declared just yesterday (Thursday).
Before visiting the Governor’s House, NPP national vice president and Pynursla legislator Prestone Tynsong announced the decision of the party to re-elect Conrad K Sangma, who retained his South Tura seat, as the parliamentary party leader.
However, the United Democratic Party (UDP), which was the main ally in the MDA government and second largest party in the newly elected House, is yet to take a call on whether to extend support to the NPP.
Sangma said in the meantime, the BJP and other political parties have already extended their support to the NPP for government formation and claimed, “Yes, absolutely we have sufficient numbers to form the government.”
When asked, the NPP chief said that they have been informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the council of ministers. “Therefore, we are waiting for confirmation from the PM’s office. If he (Modi) will be attending the swearing in, we will have to wait for the date,” he added.
Sangma, however, refused to comment if the NPP had also approached the All India Trinamool Congress and the Indian National Congress and said, “We don’t want to give the details, so just wait and watch.”
Post poll violence
Terming post counting violent incidents reported in different parts of the state as very unfortunate, Sangma said, “It shouldn’t have happened. We understand the sentiments. Of course people are very emotional at this point in time so a lot of violence took place in different locations but things are as of now under control.”
“I urge all the people of all political parties that the elections are over and democratically we have finished the democratic process and violence is not the way. I appeal to the people and the political parties not to get into any kinds of violence,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sangma said that the party has worked committedly for the people in the last five years and the victory is because people have given the party the opportunity to move forward.
