Meghalaya Elections: What’s the Problem in Having a CM from Khasi Hills, Asks Mukul Sangma

With all eyes on government formation in Meghalaya following Assembly elections results on March 2, Trinamool Congress legislature party leader and former chief minister Mukul Sangma has said that with support from the TMC and Congress, the regional United Democratic Party (UDP) will lead the new alliance in the state.

Though National People’s Party (NPP) chief Conrad Sangma has staked claim to power in Meghalaya with the BJP support, Mukul Sangma has asserted that the next government might be formed without the NPP-BJP combine.

The NPP won 26 seats and the BJP got two in the Meghalaya Assembly elections. The Congress and Trinamool Congress won five seats each, whereas the UDP got 11 seats. The Voice of the People Party won four seats, People’s Democratic Front and Hill State People’s Democratic Party won two seats each, and two Independent candidates also won.

If all political parties, including two independents, barring the NPP and BJP, come together, they can cross the magic number in the 60-Member house.

“As of now, we are having discussion under the largest party, the UDP. So it’s simple, not complicated to draw an assumption,” he told reporters when asked who the leader of the new alliance is.

Backing the demand for a Khasi CM, he said: “There is no such discrimination as Khasi or Garo. The chief minister can be from the Khasi hills. What is the problem? There is no problem. We have had the late BB Lyngdoh. We had the late EK Mawlong. And we had the late Captain Williamson Sangma,” he added.

Asked if the numbers allow for a non-NPP and non-BJP government, he said: “Don’t worry about the numbers. We know how to get the numbers… That’s why we are meeting. The numbers can be claimed and counter-claimed.”

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