With the National People’s Party (NPP) recently wresting the Gambegre seat from the Congress, its MLAs from the Garo Hills region now want more representation in the MDA 2.0 cabinet.
The NPP with 32 legislators in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly has 19 MLAs from the Garo Hills.
Sources said that the MLAs want to give more representation to their legislators by either taking away one cabinet berth from the United Democratic Party (UDP) or doing away with the lone Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) minister Shakliar Warjri.
In the MDA 2.0, out of the 12 cabinet ministers the NPP has eight ministers, four each from Garo and Khasi-Jaiñtia hills. The remaining four cabinet seats were distributed among its coalition partners – two from UDP and one each from the BJP and HSPDP.
However Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that there has been no such discussion within the NPP nor does he want to disturb the present equation in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) 2.0.
“But knowing our leader Conrad Sangma he won’t want to antagonise the coalition partners and would like the status quo to remain,” the source said, adding that Sangma won’t be able to ignore the party legislators’ demand for too long either.
NPP’s candidate and Chief Minister’s wife Dr Mehtab Chandee A Sangma recently won the by poll in Gambegre.
The NPP has 19 MLAs out of the 24 in Garo Hills while it has 13 MLAs in the 36 constituencies of Khasi-Jaiñtia hills region.
