Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma met his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K Sangma late on Tuesday at Hotel Radisson Blu on the outskirts of Guwahati. The meeting between both the senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and National People’s Party (NPP) was confirmed by NPP insiders, who said it was "just a casual meet" as both the leaders are good friends.
However, the late-night development, just a day ahead of the counting of votes for the recently concluded Meghalaya Assembly elections, has political circles in the northeast abuzz. Speculation is now rife that the meeting between both leaders was a strategic discussion to work out the possibility of stitching a post-poll alliance between the BJP and the NPP to form the next government in Meghalaya. Moreover, the meeting has come amid exit polls predicting a hung house in Meghalaya, with the NPP emerging as the single-largest party.
On the possibility of BJP forging a post-poll alliance with the NPP for a second term of a Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government in the state, the saffron party’s state president Ernest Mawrie told ABP Live, “They went to meet on their own and it was not an official meeting. What we do next will depend on the poll results. We have not discussed anything till now and it will be difficult to say at this moment. There are also possibilities that we will wait for another six months for a re-election in the state if we are unable to form the government.”
Assam Chief Minister Sarma, who is the convenor of the BJP-led North East Development Alliance (NEDA), is believed to be instrumental in the formation of several BJP coalition governments in the region.
The NPP had forged a post-poll alliance with the BJP to form the MDA government after the 2018 assembly election results. However, both parties went solo in the 2023 Meghalaya Assembly elections, owing to some differences that had developed lately between them.
Sarma on Tuesday claimed that there would not be a hung Assembly in any of the three states that went to polls in February. Sarma said the BJP will form governments with an absolute majority in all three states — Tripura, Nagaland, and Meghalaya, along with its partners. The counting of votes will take place on March 2.