Shillong: Meghalaya is all set to get its
11th government in 10 years with Chief Minister D D Lapang
resigning tonight, paving the way for his deputy Mukul Sangma
to take over the reins of the state.
Lapang`s government was the 21st government the state
has witnessed in its 38-year history and tenth in the last ten
years.
When Lapang was asked about the instability, he said,
"We are in the field. Those who are watching should study the
reasons."
During the last two years, the state has seen three
governments and is bracing for a fourth with the same set of
assembly members who were elected in March 2008.
Lapang was sworn in after the assembly elections in
March, 2008, but had to resign after ten days having failed to
muster majority in the House.
The NCP with 15 MLAs then cobbled up the regional
parties and Independents to form the government, an alliance
which did not even last for a complete year.
Lapang came back after a one-and-half month`s
President`s rule in May last year, mustering the support of
the regional parties and Independents.
He was compelled to quit today after a group of 14
disgruntled Congress legislators revolted demanding change in
leadership and their inclusion in the ministry.
In the history of Meghalaya, no political party has
ever been able to secure majority except during the first
assembly elections.
The erstwhile All Party Hills Leaders Conference
(APHLC), which spearheaded the hill state movement, came to
power in the first assembly elections in 1972.
But after Captain W A Sangma, the first Chief Minister
of the state, joined the Congress in his second term, the
APHLC snatched power from him and installed D D Pugh in his
place.
Ever since, it has been a tug of war between the
Congress and the regional parties, with the erstwhile APHLC,
the now-defunct Hill People Union (HPU) and regional United
Democratic Party (UDP) sharing power with the Congress each
time.
Such has been the political instability that the
Centre was forced to impose President`s rule in 1991, and
again in March, 2009.
Former Chief Minister S C Marak, who headed the
Congress-led alliance in 1993-1997, was the only Congressman
to complete a full five years as Chief Minister at a go after
first CM Captain Sangma.
PTI
