Shillong, Oct 23: In a second jolt within a week, the United Democratic Party suffered another split on Friday after Assembly Speaker Thomas A Sangma accepted the merger of three of its remaining four legislators with the National People’s Party.
The development has left the UDP, which was the second largest party after the last Assembly elections, with just one MLA.
The Secretariat order published on Friday said the three MLAs – Paul Lyngdoh (West Shillong), Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar (Mawkyrwat) and Nujorki Sungoh (Mowkaiaw) – had approached the Speaker on October 17 expressing their desire to merge with the NPP.
They claimed they have the required two-thirds strength under Paragraph 4(2) of the Tenth Schedule and also cited a resolution of the original UDP party deciding to merge with the NPP.
After they personally verified the contents before the Speaker on October 19, the Speaker accepted their merger.
The order recalled that on October 16, eight UDP MLAs had merged with the BJP, bringing down the UDP Legislature Party strength to four. Friday’s merger of three more with the NPP has reduced it to one.
The Speaker has directed allotment of seats to the three members as members of the NPP.
“The above-named 3 (three) members constitute not less than two-thirds of the members of the United Democratic Party Legislature Party in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly. The Hon’ble Speaker, being satisfied that they have decided to merge with the National People’s Party voluntarily and of their own will, has by order dated 23rd October, 2026 taken note of the above facts, accepted the factum of their merger with the National People’s Party under Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India, and directed allotment of seats to the above-named members as members of the National People’s Party in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly,” the order stated.
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