Neiphiu Rio and Conrad Sangma took oath as the chief ministers of Nagaland and Meghalaya respectively on Tuesday, March 7th. Manik Saha took oath as the chief minister of Tripura on Wednesday, March 8th. The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi participated in the swearing-in ceremonies in Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a minor ally of Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP) and Rio’s Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in Meghalaya and Nagaland respectively.
Nagaland government formation
Rio became the longest-serving chief minister of Nagaland after he had taken oath for the fifth consecutive term. In the recently concluded assembly election of Nagaland, the alliance of NDPP and BJP secured 37 seats in the 60-seat-strong assembly. The new state cabinet will have seven ministers from the NDPP and five from the BJP.
Rio will have two deputy chief ministers in his cabinet. Y Patton (BJP) and T R Zeliang (NDPP) took oath as Rio’s deputies during the swearing-in ceremony. The recently concluded assembly election was historic for Nagaland as it elected a woman legislator for the first time since the inception of its statehood as Hekani Jakhalu and Salhoutuono Kruse of NDPP won their respective constituencies. Besides, in a landmark step, Kruse also took oath as the first female minister of Nagaland.
Notably, all other parties in Nagaland have wished to extend their support to the BJP-NDPP coalition government and paved the way for Rio to head another opposition-less government.
Meghalaya government formation
Earlier in the day, Conrad Sangma took oath as the chief minister of Meghalaya for the second successive term. Meghalaya witnessed claims and counterclaims apropos of the formation of the government for a few days but in a climactic turnaround in the events, Sangma successfully secured the support of 45 MLAs in the 60-seat-strong assembly with the election in one seat being postponed.
Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhalang Dhar of the NPP took oath as the deputy chief ministers.
The opposition bloc of the United Democratic Party (UDP), People’s Democratic Front (PDF) and Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) lent its support to the post-poll alliance of the NPP and BJP. The dynamic of the electoral scenario of Meghalaya changed after Mukul Sangma of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) made a counterclaim about the formation of the government of Meghalaya. Mukul’s counterclaim came after Conrad had staked his claim to form the government from the support of the BJP and two independent parties.
However, Mukul’s counterclaim dealt a blow on Tuesday, March 7th, when the legislators of the UDP, PDF and HSPDP extended their support to Conrad.
Tripura government formation
Manik Saha took oath as the chief minister of Tripura for the second time in a row after BJP managed to scrape past the majority mark in the 60-seat-strong Tripura assembly. BJP made a pre-poll alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) and secured 33 seats together.
IPFT got one ministerial berth despite facing a debacle in the recently concluded election. Earlier, the talks between the BJP and Tipra Motha fell through over the latter’s demand for ‘Greater Tipraland’.
