Ahead of Meghalaya assembly elections, five MLAs have resigned from their parties to join the United Democratic Party (UDP), according to a report.
India Today reports that the five MLAs are Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar of Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP); Shitlang Pale of Trinamool Congress (TMC); Mayralborn Syiem and PT Sawkmie of the Congress; and Independent MLA Lambor Malngiang.
With these two resignations from the Congress party, the party has been reduced to zero in the Meghalaya assembly, notes India Today.
These resignations follow the resignations of three other MLAs earlier this month.
On January 5, three Meghalaya MLAs, including Cabinet minister Hamletson Dohling, resigned from the assembly, reported PTI. While Dohling was from the People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA), the other two MLAs were PDA MLA Jason Sawkmie Mawlong and HSPDP MLA Samlin Malngiang.
With the latest round of resignations, a total of 18 Meghalaya MLAs have resigned ahead of elections, according to India Today.
Though the Congress has now been reduced to zero, it was the single-largest party in the 2018 Meghalaya assembly elections with 21 seats. The UDP, which the five defecting MLAs are reportedly joining, won just six seats in 2018.
Meghalaya is slated to have assembly elections this year. Tripura and Nagaland also have elections this year in the Northeast India.
In Meghalaya, the defections as well as the emergence of TMC and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has changed the political landscape, noted Outlook's Ashutosh Bhardwaj.
"While the Congress once formed the principal Opposition in these states, two new entrants, AAP and Trinamool Congress (TMC), have made the polity multipolar. In Meghalaya, the TMC, especially after its victory in the 2021 West Bengal polls, has wooed prominent political faces from across the spectrum, with former Congress Chief Minister Mukul Sangma as its leader. Since 12 out of the 17 Congress MLAs have defected to the TMC so far, it is now the principal Opposition party in the Assembly," noted Bhardwaj earlier this month before the latest round of defections began.
