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All out in nine days

By Daya Nath Singh |
It was in Meghalaya, a nine days drama in power. The recent Assembly elections did not give a clear mandate to any political party. The Hung House compelled the political rivals to forge alliances, which came into existence in the form of Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) led by the Congress Party and the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA), a combination of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), United Democratic Party (UDP) and others. Both the alliances claimed to form the government and approached the Governor, S.S.Sidhu with their claims. Since the Congress Party was the largest single party with 25 members, it was allowed to form the government and prove the confidence of the House within 10 days time. The plea of the MPA was rejected, even after parading 31 members before the Governor.

The MUA government under the leadership of D D Lapang, took oath of the office on March 10. He could manage support of only 28 members, including three Independents. He tried his best to manage the majority even after the help of his party colleagues from the state of Assam, who approached to help him at a time of crisis. With his confidence of winning the 'power game', he even advanced the time for seeking the confidence vote by one day. But all in vain. The heavy weights from Assam could not be of much help to him. Lapang felt very uneasy since the morning of March 19. Ultimately, he decided to resign and so he did. He was all out just in nine days. The same evening MPA government under the leadership of Donkupar Roy, took oath of the office. It may be mentioned here that there is a clear understanding between the NCP and the UDP to share the power for half the period of the government. Next half period would be run by NCP.

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