Old faces, new realities: Sangma, Rio, Saha will have to walk a tightrope

Even as BJP bridges gap between Northeast and rest of India with each election win and electorate opted for continuity over change, CM Sangma, Rio, and Saha will have to walk a tightrope

Conrad Sangma

Chief Minister, Meghalaya

Uneasy Lies The Head

Conrad Kongkal Sangma may have become chief minister of Meghalaya for the second time with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other coalition partners after he failed to win a majority (with just 26 seats of the 60), but uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

He has forged together an alliance that looks extremely unstable, as the traditional rivalry between the Khasi and Garo Hills surfaces.

It needed no astrologer to predict instability: ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections, his National People’s Party (NPP) and the BJP,