Is it Congress-Mukt Meghalaya all over again? In a dramatic political churn that underscores the grand old party’s waning grip in the hill state, the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee lost its last standing MLA on Wednesday, leaving the Assembly entirely devoid of Congress representation.
Mylliem legislator Ronnie V. Lyngdoh officially resigned from the Indian National Congress and joined the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), marking the final blow to the Congress’s legislative presence in the state. His resignation was submitted before Assembly Speaker Thomas A. Sangma, witnessed by Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar, former Mylliem MLA Hamelson Dohling, and NPP strategist Daniel M. Thangkhiew.
Lyngdoh becomes the fourth Congress MLA to defect to the NPP in less than a year. Earlier on August 19, 2024, Dr. Celestine Lyngdoh, Gabriel Wahlang, and Charles Marngar had merged with the NPP. Their move was ratified under the anti-defection law’s two-thirds majority provision—signaling a strategic consolidation of power by Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma’s party.
With this latest induction, the NPP now holds 33 seats, positioning itself as the single largest party in the 60-member House and further tightening its grip on Meghalaya’s political landscape.
The Congress, once a dominant force in the Northeast, now finds itself in complete electoral eclipse in Meghalaya—rendered voiceless and absent within the state Assembly for the first time in decades.
