BJP, Cong rush to 'kingmaker' UDP at same time for support in Meghalaya

Shillong: In an interesting turn of events in the race for a tie-up to form the government in Meghalaya, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju along with Himanta Biswa Sarma bumped into outgoing Congress CM Mukul Sangma at the United Democratic Party (UDP) headquarters in Shillong.

The United Democratic Party that won six seats in Meghalaya assembly elections had the option to decide who forms the next government.

After maintaining that it had not decided on which party to support, the UDP extended its support to National People's Party (NPP) which came to a close second to the Congress with 19 seats. Congress leads with 21 seats, while the BJP got just two.

"As a party we meet and discussed formation of govt. We all decided we should form a non-Congress govt, and we have decided that NPP government should be formed led by Conrad Sangma as the CM," UDP chief Donkupar Roy said.

Roy had earlier on Sunday suggested that his party would support that group which is able to provide "a stable government".

"We would like to ensure that we have stable government. That is priority number 1," Roy had told NDTV.

The Congress, which failed to open its account in Tripura and Nagaland tried hard to retain Meghalaya. The party has won 21 assembly seats and is short of ten seats to get an absolute majority in the 60 member assembly.

(With agency inputs)