The opposition Congress Party’s motion of no-confidence will be put to a vote in the Assembly tomorrow, with Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma confident that his government will sail through.
The motion was tabled by the Congress today and was admitted by Speaker, Metbah Lyngdoh.
The Congress, in its notice of no-confidence, said that Sangma’s government “has failed to address multiple and critical issues” and “failed to protect the interest of the state”.
As the strength of the Congress is less than one-third the total of the house (19 out of 60 MLAs), the CM expressed confidence in the outcome. However, just to be sure, all of the ruling alliance’s MLAs are expected to make an appearance for the vote, even those who have only recently recovered from Covid-19.
Four MDA legislators have contracted the disease so far, namely Health and Family Welfare AL Hek, Power Minister James Sangma, Marcuise Marak and SG Estamur Mominin.
“We are ready, the entire MDA (Meghalaya Democratic Alliance) is very confident and we are united and we will get through this no-confidence motion,” Sangma told reporters after a meeting of the alliance soon after the Assembly session ended today.
The Chief Minister said that the meeting of the MDA was to make sure that all the alliance members are present tomorrow during the no-confidence vote and to decide who would participate in the debate.
He confirmed that all Covid infected MLAs have now tested negative, though some have not attended the sessions as they are experiencing weakness (a fairly common symptom of Covid-19 even after recovery). Being an important day, all of them have been asked to attend.
Meanwhile, when asked whether the Congress really could topple the government, leader of the opposition, Dr Mukul Sangma, said, “When the issues are placed before the house and members deliberate then we will see the end result. We cannot predict how the house will behave.”
