On his 45th birthday tomorrow, Sangma will cease to be the deputy chief minister. Instead, he will be sworn in as the 11th chief minister of Megahlaya after he was formally elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party here replacing D.D. Lapang late tonight.
True to the Congress’s time-tested culture, Mukul was “unanimously” elected the CLP leader at a meeting held, ironically, at Lapang’s residence which was attended by all party MLAs in the presence of AICC leaders Oscar Fernandez and Luizinho Faleiro.
The swearing-in of the new chief minister will be held tomorrow morning at Raj Bhavan here.
Lapang, who had taken over as chief minister of the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance government on May 13 last year, drove straight to Raj Bhavan from LGB Airport, Guwahati, around 7.45pm to submit his resignation.
Last night, he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi to apprise her of the developments.
Talking to reporters after the CLP meet, Lapang said Mukul was the unanimous choice of the Congress MLAs. “I had met 18 MLAs in New Delhi and they proposed to elect Mukul as the next leader, and with all my blessings, I had accepted to pave way for him to take over.”
In the 60-member Assembly, the Congress has 28 legislators and is in coalition with 10 UDP MLAs, five Independents, two HSPDP, and one KHNAM legislator. The Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has 15 members.
Meghalaya is now set to get its 11th government in 10 years.
Lapang’s government was the 21st the state had in its 38-year history and 10th in the past 10 years.
Asked about the instability, Lapang said: “We are in the field. Those who are watching should study the reasons.”