By IANS,
Shillong : The Congress has finalised its list of ministers to be sworn in Saturday as ministers in the new Meghalaya government headed by Chief Minister Mukul M. Sangma.
“The party high command has approved the list and the remaining eight ministers will be inducted Saturday morning,” Sangma told IANS from New Delhi, where he has camped since Wednesday.
The list, he said, was approved after several rounds of deliberations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior party leaders.
“Before putting her seal on the list, Sonia Gandhi asked me to ensure stability of the government,” Sangma said.
Sangma, who took oath as chief minister Tuesday, is heading the five-party Congress-United Democratic Party (UDP) coalition government.
Along with him, A.T. Mondal (Independent), J.A. Lyngdoh and Bindo Mathew Lanong of the UDP were also sworn in. Lanong was sworn in as deputy chief minister. The three were members of the Lapang ministry as well.
The remaining eight ministers in the 12-member size cabinet would be mainly from the Congress, Sangma said.
In the 60-member legislature, the Congress has 28 legislators and has the support of 10 UDP members, five independents and one KHNAM legislator. The main opposition, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has 15 members.
According to party sources, the chief minister had to accommodate five rebel Congress legislators — Rowell Lyngdoh, H.D.R. Lyngdoh, Frankenstein W. Momin, Augustine D. Marak and first timer Founder Strong Cajee.
Rowell, a former home minister, is also tipped to be the deputy chief minister.
The five were brought in at the expense of the two independent members — Limison D. Sangma and Ismail R. Marak — as well as lone KHNAM legislator Paul Lyngdoh, who was instrumental in toppling the NCP-led government and bringing the Congress to power last year.
Senior Congress legislator and former public works department minister Martin M. Danggo has been left out after the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report revealed financial irregularities committed by him while he was the assembly speaker.
However, his former cabinet colleagues in the D.D. Lapang cabinet, R.C. Laloo, Prestone Tynsong and Ampareen Lyngdoh — the lone woman legislator — are also in the list, the sources said.
The Lapang government collapsed after 14 Congress legislators asked him to sack Marak, Limison and Lyngdoh from the cabinet and induct Congress members in their place. When Lapang failed to do so, the rebels pressed for his removal.