From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI: Donkupar Roy occupied various top positions in Meghalaya but many might not have known that he had refused to bite the bait of chief ministership when elections threw up a hung assembly in 2018.
Senior Congress leaders made a beeline to his house offering him the top post even though his party, United Democratic Party (UDP), was placed third with only six seats. (The party subsequently won the by-election to the Ranikor seat to take its tally to seven). They knew without UDP they could not form the government and hence the bait.
But by then NPP top leaders had already met Roy and formalised the plan to form a coalition government. Roy agreed to become Speaker since his party did not have the numbers even with all regional party MLAs combined.
Roy could have grabbed the Congress offer for the coveted post, but as an astute politician in the hill state he knew the pitfalls ahead. “You cannot put the cart before the horse,” he told a Congress leader hinting that such a lopsided coalition would not work even if he had the coveted post.
By that time the Congress had lost power at the Centre and in most of the NE states. He knew the NDA-appointed Governor would not have allowed such a ragtag coalition.
Roy also knew the Congress would not have allowed him in the CM’s post for long. “You people have not spared your own leaders,” he quipped to a waiting Congress leader.
Roy had also suffered the sad experience of his government being overthrown by the Congress when he was CM leading a rainbow coalition consisting of then NCP and others.
Rest, as they say, is history.