United Democratic Party (UDP) leader and state minister Metbah Lyngdoh was on Wednesday nominated as the consensus candidate of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) for the post of Speaker of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the chief minister Conrad K Sangma and attended by all members of the coalition alliance here on Wednesday evening, UDP leaders said.
Metbah is presently the minister in-charge of Tourism and Water Resources.
The decision was also in line with the stand of the UDP that the Speakers post should remain with the party
UDP president and Assembly Speaker Donkupar Roy died on July 28.
Congratulating the UDP leader, the chief minister said, "It is only after extensive consultations (with all partners) did we arrived at a consensus. I must congratulate all members of the core committee for working very hard to come to this point."
Sangma also thanked all the alliance partners for supporting the decision.
He said political parties have expressed their desire to put up candidate and the everybodys voice was heard adding "We allowed a healthy discussion to take place but the beauty of the whole thing is that at the end we decided unanimously and everybody appreciated and accepted it and that is the strength of the MDA."
Asked on who will be the new face in the cabinet in place of Metbah, the chief minister said, "That we will see ... hat is the next phase.
Metbah said that he felt honoured to have been elected as the consensus candidate for the post of Speaker. All the members of the MDA with one voice have elected me as the candidate, without any debate, he said.
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