National People's Party (NPP) president Conrad K Sangma on Sunday evening met governor Ganga Prasad and staked claim to form the government in Meghalaya.
"The next 2-3 days are very crucial because Assembly term gets over. The House expires on March 7 before that everything has to take place, and by tomorrow everything will be clear," Sangma said after meeting the governor.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) leader Donkupar Roy has extended support to the NPP. The NPP has won 19 seats, while the UDP has won six seats, and its alliance partner Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) won two seats on Saturday. On Sunday, Assam Finance, Health and Education Minister and Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma said to keep Congress out of power in Meghalaya, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with regional parties will form the next government in the state.
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This means the NPP-UDP-HSPDP-BJP alliance already seems to have 29 MLAs.
"I am confident that the regional parties and the BJP will form the government in Meghalaya together. The people in Meghalaya have rejected the Congress. We are committed to giving them an alternate form of government and we are moving in that direction only," Himanta told ANI.
Following its defeat in the Meghalaya polls, the BJP suggested that the regional parties – the NPP and the UDP should enter into an alliance to form a "non-Congress government" in the state, as Meghalaya voters returned a hung assembly.
The BJP managed to win just two seats, while the Congress retained its hold on Meghalaya by winning 21 seats, 10 short of the majority 31-seat mark in the 60-member house.
Meanwhile, Sangma, who could be the next chief minister, had also confirmed that he was going to meet the Meghalaya governor at 5 pm on Sunday.
Sangma had earlier said that his party would be able to form the next government with the help of other like-minded parties.
On the other hand, senior leaders of the Congress, which emerged as the single largest party in Meghalaya with 21 seats, met the Governor on Saturday night to stake claim to form the new government.
Ahmed Patel and Kamal Nath on Saturday requested Governor Ganga Prasad to invite the Congress to form the new government in the state, reported IANS
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The Congress had sent its top guns to Meghalaya to explore possibilities of government formation after its losses in two other northeastern states of Tripura and Nagaland.
Meghalaya Congress working president Vincent H Pala expressed confidence that regional parties such as the United Democratic Party, which won six seats, and the People's Democratic Front, which bagged four, will join the Congress.
"We are in talks. We hope that they will join us," Pala said.
