Bigwigs start parleys with satraps for majority

SHILLONG: The three big players, the Congress, NPP and BJP, have started making desperate attempts to woo regional parties after a hung Assembly on Saturday.
The All India Congress Committee was quick to send its senior leaders Ahmed Patel, Mukul Wasnik and Kamal Nath, who arrived here in Shillong to plan ways of forming the government.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP’s northeastern alliance chief, is also in Shillong to strategise for a non-Congress government in Meghalaya.
All eyes are set on the United Democratic Party (UDP) which will meet here on Sunday to take a call on whom should the party support.
Sources said that both NPP and the Congress had sent feelers to UDP and other regional parties to form the next government. It is yet to be known whether the regional parties will set a condition for change of leadership in CLP before supporting the Congress.
Going by the prevailing situation in the state, speculations of horse-trading cannot be ruled out.
When contacted, BJP state President Shibun Lyngdoh said the party is in talks with all the regional parties and the two independent candidates and “so far their response is good”.
The BJP is desperate to dislodge the Congress from Meghalaya with the help of NPP and other parties even after securing mere two seats.
Earlier, the NPP national president, Conrad Sangma, had said he would explore the means of forming the next government. The party with 19 MLAs is confident to form the government.
“We are quite confident but we can’t divulge our strategy,” NPP leader James Sangma said.
Mukul Sangma, however, is yet to make clear his stand for forging an alliance with likeminded parties.