Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Monday won a trust vote in the Assembly by a voice vote, IANS reported. Sangma, who belongs to the National People’s Party, has the support of five other parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Congress had won the most number of seats – 21 – in the 60-member Meghalaya legislature when election results were announced on March 3. However, the National People’s Party, with 19 seats, formed an alliance with six legislators from the United Democratic Party, four from the People’s Democratic Front, two each from the Hill State People’s Democratic Party and the BJP, one from the Nationalist Congress Party and one Independent.
On Monday, former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, now the leader of Opposition, intervened just as Speaker Donkupar Roy was about to put the confidence motion to vote. “We would like to know whether it is an NPP-led government, BJP-led government or a conglomeration of parties which is leading the government,” he asked.
Mukul Sangma said the elections had thrown up a fractured mandate, and that the “mandate of the people” was to form a government without the BJP. “The political parties in their election campaigns had promised the innocent people of the state that they would have no access to the BJP,” he said. “Various political parties had also clearly stated they will not have any connection with the party.”
In response, Conrad Sangma said there was no doubt that the new government was an NPP-led dispensation, called the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance.
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