The NPP has now secured a majority on its own in Meghalaya with the joining of three Congress MLAs.
Umsning MLA and former State Congress president Dr. Celestine Lyngdoh, Nongstoiñ MLA Gabriel Wahlang and Mawhati MLA Charles Marngar today officially joined the NPP at a special function held at the party’s office here.
With the entry of the three MLAs into the party, the strength of the ruling NPP has gone up to 31 in the 60-member Assembly. It may be mentioned that the NPP had won 26 seats in the 2023 Assembly elections.
Dr. Lyngdoh, Wahlang and Marngar merged themselves with the NPP after giving a merger application to Assembly Speaker Thomas Sangma on August 14.
In order to strengthen their merger claim, the three MLAs also appeared before the Speaker today.
The Speaker in his ruling today said that all the three MLAs formed two-third of the strength of the Congress legislature party in the State Assembly for merging with the NPP.
During the welcoming ceremony organised at the new NPP office, the three MLAs informed media persons that the suspension letter was issued by the Congress to two of them (Wahlang and Marngar) after they had already submitted their merger letter to the Speaker on August 14. The suspension was announced on August 16.
With the NPP having a clear majority in the House, it is unclear if the party would dump other alliance partners in the MDA-2 government such as UDP (12), HSPDP (2), BJP (2) and Independents (2).
Further, with the addition of the three MLAs, the strength of the MDA-2 government is now 47.
