Shillong, Nov 4: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today said the decision to induct Paul Lyngdoh into the Meghalaya cabinet had been accepted by National People’s Party (NPP) legislators and there is no disagreement within the party over the appointment.
Lyngdoh joined the NPP last month from the United Democratic Party (UDP) and was almost immediately rewarded with a cabinet berth. In an order yesterday it was confirmed that he was given charge of the Arts and Culture, Tourism and Social Welfare Departments, all of which he held before he was removed from cabinet due to internal UDP politics in 2025.
Sangma, who is also the NPP national president, said the party had taken all its legislators into confidence before finalising the decision, adding that most of them were present when the matter was discussed.
“Everybody has been communicated with and there is no issue at all in this aspect,” he said.
Yesterday, however, Timothy Shira, from whom the Tourism portfolio was removed, expressed his disappointment at the move, though he still professed loyalty to the NPP and the decisions made by its top brass.
Acknowledging that several legislators may have aspirations of becoming ministers, Sangma said such ambitions were natural in any political party, including the NPP. However, he maintained that individual aspirations could not take precedence over collective decisions taken in the larger interest of the party.
“There will always be aspirations of everybody wanting to be in the Cabinet. That is natural for any political party and that’s obviously the same for our political party also,” he said.
The CM also said that it would be difficult to fit any more BJP legislators into the cabinet. There are currently two – Sanbor Shullai and Lahkmen Rymbui, the latter who defected to the BJP from the UDP.
Sangma said he had received calls from the BJP seeking some form of accommodation for its legislators after its strength in the Assembly increased from two to 10. However, he indicated that there was little scope for immediate changes, as the cabinet’s composition was already in place.
Personally pained by UDP’s exit
Sangma today said he was personally disappointed with the United Democratic Party’s (UDP) decision to withdraw support from the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, admitting that he had hoped the regional party would continue to remain part of the coalition.
The UDP, which has been reduced to just one MLA after two separate mass defections to its then allies the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP), yesterday decided to pull its support from the alliance, which it has supported since the first iteration in 2018.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma, who is also the NPP national president, said he shared a close relationship with several UDP leaders and regretted the political developments that led to their separation.
“Am I pained by it? Yes, of course. I have a very special connection with the leaders of the UDP, and we had wished that they would still be with us,” he said.
However, Sangma made it clear that neither he nor the NPP had asked the UDP to quit the government, stating that the decision was entirely that of the regional party’s leadership.
He said the resignation of UDP president Metbah Lyngdoh from the cabinet last week and the party’s subsequent withdrawal of support were decisions taken independently by the UDP after assessing the changing political situation.
“It is not something that I, as an NPP president, have asked them to do,” he said.
With this decision by the UDP, the opposition bloc in the Assembly now stands at 10 MLAs.
