Conrad sworn in as Meghalaya’s chief minister

Governor Ganga Prasad administered the oath of office and secrecy to all the eleven ministers at a grand swearing in ceremony held at the sprawling and flowery lush green lawns of the historic house – Raj Bhawan.

The other constituents of the newly sworn in government include the BJP, a ruling party at the Centre, and regional parties – United Democratic Party (UDP), Hill State People Democratic Party (HSPDP) and People’s Democratic Front (PDF).

The ministers include four from the NPP, three from the UDP, two from PDF one each from HSPDP and PDF.

The swearing-in ceremony was witnessed leaders of different political parties including BJP bigwigs – Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP chief Amit Shah, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh and Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

Congress leaders including former chief ministers – DD Lapang and Mukul Sangma also attended the ceremony.

Of the eleven ministers who sworn in, four are from the then Mukul-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA-II) government.

These are Prestone Tynsong, Sniawbhalang Dhar, Comingone Ymbon and Alexander L Hek– who left the Congress and joined NPP and BJP before the just concluded 2018 Assembly elections.

Conrad’s elder brother James K Sangma, a two-time legislator from Dadenggre, was also accommodated in the Cabinet.

Kyrmen Shylla, a first time elected member of the UDP from Khliehriat constituency, also become the youngest minister. The other two UDP legistors inducted in the Conrad-led cabinet includes – Metbah Lyngdoh and Lahkmen Rymbui.

Samlin Malngiang of the HSPDP and Hamletson Dohling of the PDF, were also rewarded with cabinet berths for being giant killers as they defeated senior Congress leaders – HDR Lyngdoh and Ronnie V Lyngdoh from  Sohiong and Mylliem respectively. PDF MLA from Mawkynrew Banteidor also sworn in as minister.

Malngiang’s sworn in also came a day after HSPDP’s chief executive committee expressed its reservation on the decision to propose Conrad as chief minister and demanded exclusion of the BJP, which won only two seats, from the coalition government.

Speaking to journalists after being sworn in as chief minister, Conrad, who is also Tura MP, said that the priority of his government would be to focus on good governance even as he assured to resolve the long pending boundary dispute with Assam.

“We are very clear in our agenda that we want to focus on good governance and we feel that governance has been missing and it is important to get everything on track and of course many sectors that need to be looked into,” he said.

Asked, the chief minister said that his government will also take up the long pending unresolved boundary dispute with his counterpart – the BJP led government of Assam.

“We will be discussing about that this is an important issue for us and there are many issues that needs to be looked into,” he said.

Stating that oath taking is just the beginning and now the real challenge and real work starts today, he said, “I want to say that we as a cabinet, as a government and in fact all 60 MLAs and political parties will work together to take our state forward.”

Admitting that running a coalition government will always be a challenge, he said coalition will always have challenges there is no doubt about it.

“But we will face those challenges and realise that we need to work unitedly, that is where things will. As coalition partners we need to respect each other and it will be my duty and responsibility to ensure that we carry everybody along with us,” he added.

On the distribution of portfolios, Conrad said that the matter related to portfolios and also protem speaker keeping in mind that tomorrow will be oath taking of newly elected member of the tenth Assembly, will be discussed later today.

By Our Reporter