Meghalaya Polls: Fear Of Fractured Mandate Pushes Mainstream Parties To Look Out For Regional Partners

The fear of a fractured mandate is also getting reflected in the election campaigning as no one is attacking his or her rival in a full throttle thinking of the future realignment.

Leading parties in the election ring, the National People’s Party (NPP), Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), all are reaching out to smaller regional parties and independents. (Representative Image)

Guwahati: Sensing a fractured mandate, mainstream parties in Meghalaya are wooing regional parties to forge a post-poll alliance to form a government.

Leading parties in the election ring, the National People’s Party (NPP), Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), all are reaching out to smaller regional parties and independents that could make all the difference in case of a hung assembly. And, this looks like inevitability in the state.

The fear of a fractured mandate is also getting reflected in the election campaigning as no one is attacking his or her rival in a full throttle thinking of the future realignment.

TMC vice President George B Lyngdoh said that his party has been reaching out to other political parties since May 2022.

Regional party United Democratic Party’s general secretary Jemino Mawthoh said, “It is an issue to be discussed after we cross the bridge.”

TMC Parliamentary Party leader Mukul Sangma had provided fodder for the speculation mills when he appealed to the regional partners of the NPP-led coalition to be part of his party’s mission for Meghalaya.

No pre-poll alliance:

Meanwhile, Conrad Sangma-led NPP, which was leading the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) coalition government in alliance with the UDP, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other regional parties, are fighting the elections alone. There is no pre-poll alliance this time around in poll-bound Meghalaya.

The BJP, meanwhile, has decided to break away from the alliance in the state government, dumping all its four allies, including NPP, and has decided go solo in the assembly election to be held next month.

With an eye on having its own chief minister in Meghalaya, the party has decided to contest on all 60 seats in the state. In 2018, BJP had won just two seats out of 60.