Shillong, October 6: The National People’s Party (NPP) Parliamentary Party meeting held at Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s residence in Shillong on Tuesday evening, with NPP MLAs arriving at the Chief Minister’s bungalow from around 6 pm amid speculation over the political situation in the State.
Sangma, who is also the NPP national president, said Parliamentary Party meetings were a normal practice among legislators to discuss governance-related issues and address concerns raised by MLAs.
“We are having a meeting today, and all the NPP MLAs will be there. There is no major concern or issue,” Sangma said.
The meeting was held amid reports that a sizeable number of NPP MLAs had allegedly been approached by the BJP following the recent political developments involving the UDP and BJP. Asked whether the meeting was an emergency one and whether the latest developments had raised concerns about the stability of the MDA 2 government, Sangma dismissed the reports as speculation.
“These are nothing but speculations,” Sangma said, adding that there was no such thought process within the NPP and “there is nothing of concern in this particular matter.”
Sangma asserted that the MDA 2 government remained stable, pointing out that the NPP has 33 MLAs and that its legislators were intact. He said the overall strength of the coalition remained unchanged despite changes in the composition of individual coalition partners.
“The MDA 2 Government is very very stable, the NPP on its own has 33 MLAs who are absolutely intact,” Sangma said.
He said differences between coalition partners were internal matters between the respective parties and had not affected the overall equation or stability of the MDA government.
On reports of a possible Cabinet reshuffle or induction of any of the eight former UDP MLAs who recently joined the BJP, Sangma said there had been no discussion or indication in that regard.
“There has been no discussion on this,” Sangma said, adding that there had been no such discussion either before or after the eight MLAs joined the BJP
