Meghalaya Saturday threw up a hung Assembly with the ruling Congress bagging 21 seats, down from 29 in 2013, and falling 10 short of a simple majority. Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party took giant strides, winning 19 seats. Both parties were making hectic efforts to rope in smaller parties and Independents to form the government.
The Congress had focused all energy on Meghalaya in this round of Assembly elections, to the extent it upset its leaders in Tripura and Nagaland. The Nagaland Congress chief, Kewe Khape Therie, had accused the party of abandoning the state. While the Congress was wiped out in those two states, its efforts in Meghalaya turned out to be not enough.
Conrad Sangma, chief of the National People's Party is all set to be the next Chief Minister of Meghalaya. Mr Conrad, who will be sworn in on Tuesday, will not have a deputy, BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, announced after Mr Conrad staked claim to form the government and received an invite. Meghalaya is the second state, after Goa, where the Congress has not been able to stitch a coalition in time despite emerging as the largest single party. As he came out of his meeting with Governor Ganga Prasad, Mr Sangma underlined that "it's not about being single largest, it's about having the majority". Mr Sarma said the BJP-back coalition would have 34 lawmakers.
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