SHILLONG, JUN 3: The Meghalaya Democratic Alliance-II has unanimously endorsed NPP leader James PK Sangma as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha election scheduled for June 18, 2026, after constituent parties failed to reach consensus on a single name.
The decision was taken at a meeting of MDA-II parliamentary party leaders chaired by Chief Minister and MDA-II Chairman Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday.
UDP leader Paul Lyngdoh briefed the media after the meeting and said, “The parliamentary party leaders representing all constituents of the MDA-II were briefed about election scheduled to the Rajya Sabha for the State of Meghalaya on June 18, 2026 and the views of the NPP on the matter by both the national and the state presidents of the NPP.”
He said constituent units expressed interest in fielding their own nominees.
“In the course of the discussions, members from the constituent units expressed their various points and indicated their willingness to have their party nominees selected and endorsed as official candidate of the MDA,” he said.
With no agreement on a common candidate, the alliance reverted to established practice. “However, since the various parties had proposed various names of individuals belonging to the respective political parties and there being no point of consensus on a single name, it was decided to follow the established convention of endorsing the proposal put forward by the largest constituent ie, the NPP in order to ensure cohesion and unanimity on the basis of established parliamentary practice,” Lyngdoh said.
“The meeting therefore, unanimously endorsed the NPP’s proposal for the candidature of James PK Sangma as Rajya Sabha nominee representing the MDA-II,” he added. On the upcoming byelection to the Shillong Parliamentary Constituency, the coalition decided to let parties take their own stand. “However, respecting the various constituent members of the MDA to allow the various parties to take their own call as far as the byelection to the Shillong Parliamentary Constituency is concerned, it was unanimously agreed that the parties are free to contest/support/stay neutral/stay away from the above byelection,” Lyngdoh said. He said the meeting had only one agenda.
“Since there was only one matter for consideration by the meeting today, the leader of the parliamentary party of the MDA-II Conrad K Sangma thank all members present and concluded the meeting with a formal request to all members to work unitedly to ensure the successful realization of the decision of today’s meeting.”
Asked about the nomination date, Sangma said “the nomination filing will be on June 5.” On the process followed, the Chief Minister said detailed discussions were held but no consensus emerged on individual party nominees.
“Different political parties have expressed their desire to have their representative from their party as a nominee for the Rajya Sabha and detailed discussion took place and that is why we took a lot of time but at the end since we could not come up on a consensus on different desire of different political parties, we came to a consensus and we have all agreed together that we will go as per democratic process and allow the largest party nominee to be backed,” he said. He clarified that all constituents had formally agreed to the decision.
“Therefore, the fact that all political parties who are present today, have formally agreed to that and therefore, the question of the whip coming in in any other way does not arise. If the whip comes in, it will come in the language that the particular political party MLAs will support the candidature which is MDA-II candidature,” Sangma said.
“It is important to note that the candidate which we are proposing now is not a political party candidature but it has been adopted as a resolution as the MDA-II’s candidate,” he added.
By Our Reporter
