new delhi: The road to forming the next government in Meghalaya doesn t appear smooth for the National Peoples Party NPP as a regional party, two MLAs of which had extended their support to Conrad Sangma, withdrew the same late on Friday evening. National People s Party NPP chief Conrad K Sangma submits his resignation as chief minister of Meghalaya before governor Phagu Chauhan and stakes claim for forming a new government in the state, in Shillong on Friday. ANI Photo National People s Party NPP chief Conrad K Sangma submits his resignation as chief minister of Meghalaya before governor Phagu Chauhan and stakes claim for forming a new government in the state, in Shillong on Friday. ANI Photo On Friday, Sangma had submitted a letter of support signed by 32 legislators one more than the required 31 and staked a claim to form the next government. The oath taking ceremony was expected to take place on March 7. The letter contained the signatures of 26 MLAs from the NPP, two from the BJP, two from the Hill State Peoples Democratic Party HSPDP and two Independent MLAs.
We have an absolute majority. The BJP has already extended its support. Some others have also given their support, Conrad said after submitting the letter. But in a new twist later in the evening, the HSPDP issued a letter claiming it had not authorised the party MLAs to support the formation of an NPP led government. HSPDP didn t authorize the two MLAs Methodius Dkhar and Shakliar Warjri to lend support to the formation of your government as we have seen through press media report, HSPDP president KP Pangniang and secretary Panborlang Ryntathiang stated in a letter to Conrad, who is also president of the NPP. The party HSPDP has no role in this affair and therefore withdraws our support to your party .effective from today, the letter, which HT has seen, and a copy of which was also sent to the Governor, read. There was no immediate response from the NPP to the HSPDP letter, but party sources claimed that these were minor hiccups and that it still had the required numbers to form government easily .
Earlier on Friday, newly elected MLAs and leaders of the United Democratic Party, Congress, Trinamool Congress, HSPDP, Peoples Democratic Front PDF and Voice of People Party VPP held a meeting in Shillong on Friday to try and form a united front and prevent the NPP from returning to power.