Shillong, Nov 5: The state government was not part of any negotiation between the BJP and the MLAs, who left UDP to merge with the saffron party, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, implying that question of cabinet berth for any of those MLAs does not arise at the moment.
There is reportedly discontent within state BJP, which now has 10 MLAs, for being “ignored” in the recent cabinet reshuffle.
“When the discussions took place in the beginning about them joining, these matters were not discussed. It was a pure decision at the MLAs’ level from UDP to join BJP. The discussion of any kind of cabinet adjustment was not made at that time,” Sangma said on Wednesday.
He said the state government was not part of those discussions and no communication was made seeking cabinet berths.
“So therefore it would be unfair to say that this condition is being put in place now,” he said.
Admitting that he got requests for more cabinet berths for BJP after increase in the party’s strength from two to 10 MLAs, the Chief Minister said, “They urged that if the state government and chief minister could see something in which some accommodation could be done in whatever capacity that is there.”
He, however, said cabinet induction is not a simple exercise due to limited numbers.
“I have expressed very clearly… we have limited numbers and obviously everything is set. So it’s not so simple for us, but wherever and whatever possible from our side, we will always be there to work with our coalition partners,” Sangma added.
