Shillong, Oct 23: The merger of three out of the four remaining United Democratic Party (UDP) MLAs with the National People’s Party (NPP) was formally recognised by Speaker of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, Thomas A Sangma, today.
With this recognition, the strength of the NPP has risen to 36 while the UDP now has only one remaining legislator, cabinet minister and Mairang MLA Metbah Lyngdoh.
The Speaker’s approval was a foregone conclusion. To avoid anti-defection rules, at least two-thirds of a legislative party must agree to join (technically merge) with another and the UDP trio of West Shillong MLA Paul Lyngdoh, Mawkyrwat MLA Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar and Mowkaiaw MLA Nujorki Sungoh satisfied this requirement.
The order follows an earlier decision dated October 16, by which the Speaker recognised the merger of eight members of the UDP with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Subsequently, on October 17, three of the remaining four UDP MLAs submitted a communication to the Speaker conveying their decision to merge with the NPP.
The matter was placed before the Speaker on October 19, following which he directed the members to personally verify the contents.
Two of the three MLAs, except Sungoh appeared before the Speaker on the same day, verified the contents and reaffirmed their decision.
Upon examination and after being satisfied that the decision was voluntary, the Speaker through his order dated Friday accepted and recognised the merger and directed that the three MLAs be allotted seats as members of the NPP.
