North-East byelections: Key contests in Meghalaya, Assam as Sikkim’s SKM secures uncontested seats
The North East is gearing up for byelections on Wednesday, with eight seats in focus across Assam, Meghalaya, and Sikkim.
The Conrad K Sangma government won a facile trust vote in the Meghalaya Assembly on Monday.
In all, 35 votes were cast in favour of the confidence motion and 20 against. One vote was declared invalid, while an MLA abstained. The pro-tem speaker did not vote. Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma had contested from two seats and won both.
Sangma-led MDA government, which includes the BJP and regional parties, was sworn in on March 6. Six non-Congress parties and an independent MLA constitute the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government.
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Initiating the debate on the motion of confidence, former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma slammed the National People’s Party of Conrad Sangma for tying up with the BJP. He also wanted to know which party led the ruling coalition.
“It will be appropriate for this house to know which party is leading the government. Is it by the NPP or is it led by BJP and its conglomerates?” he asked.
He said it was for the first time in the history of the state that files during the swearing-in of the new government were all saffron.
Responding to Mukul Sangma’s barb, the chief minister said, “ It is clear that the MDA government is headed by the NPP…there is no doubt about it. All the political parties including the UDP, HSPDP, PDF and BJP in their letters of support submitted to the governor had clearly expressed support to the government led by Conrad K Sangma.”
The NPP stitched a non-Congress government by bringing almost regional parties – NPP (19), United Democratic Party (6), People Democratic Front (4), Hill State People Democratic Party (2), Bharatiya Janata Party (2) and Nationalist Congress Party (1) besides 2 Independents.
Meghalaya has a 60-member Assembly, but elections were held for 59 seats due to the killing of a candidate.
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