The Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) was the ruling

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

of political parties that formed the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

in the state of

Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of As ...

, India from 2008 to 2009. It was led by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the United Democratic Party (UDP) who are the second and third largest parties in the 8th

Meghalaya Legislative Assembly The Meghalaya Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Meghalaya. Constituted as a directly elected body in 1972, it has 60 members, filled through direct elections held e ...

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Dr. Donkupar Roy and the other ministers in the Government belong to the MPA.

History

The MPA was formed soon after the

2008 Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election The Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election of 2008 took place in a single phase on 3 March 2008 to elect the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from each of the 60 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) in Meghalaya, India. Counting of votes ha ...

when it emerged that the Indian National Congress (INC) did not have sufficient Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to form the Government. All the non-INC parties in the state decided to join hands and formed the MPA in a bid to keep the INC out of power in Meghalaya. After the elections, the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

S. S. Sidhu invited the INC-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) under the leadership of D. D. Lapang to form the Government by virtue of being the largest party in the Assembly. The MPA claimed that this move by the Governor was unconstitutional since the MUA did not have sufficient majority in the Assembly. The MUA was given 10 days to prove its majority in the Assembly. As the confidence vote approached, D. D. Lapang resigned and the MPA was given the chance to form the Government. The MPA Government headed by Dr. Donkupar Roy was sworn in by Governor Sidhu on 19 March 2008 with the support of 31 members in the 60 member Assembly. The MPA have pledged to provide top priority to ensuring transparency in governance and have prepared a common minimum program that reflects promises made by each of the constituent parties in their respective poll manifestoes.

Initial Support

At the time of formation, the MPA included the following members: * Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) (14 MLAs) * United Democratic Party (UDP) (11 MLAs) * Hill State People's Democratic Party (HPDP) (2 MLAs) * Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) (1 MLA) *

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(1 MLA) * independents (2 MLAs) Despite being the largest party, the NCP gave up the Chief Minister post to UDP in order to achieve stability in the Government. There are also some reports of a power-sharing agreement between the UDP and NCP to share the Chief Minister position for two and a half years each.

Changes in constituents

By June, the MPA was able to secure further support from 2 additional independent MLAs. This took the ruling party's count to 33 in the 60 member Assembly.

Collapse

In March 2009, Meghalaya was put under President's Rule. By May 2009, the United Democratic Party and the Hill State People's Democratic Party had left the Progressive Alliance, and the United Alliance returned to power with D.D. Lapang as chief minister

References

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External links