Brington Buhai Lyngdoh: A master coalition builder

Refererred as a 'master coalition builder', the four-time chief minister Brington Buhai Lyngdoh is one of the few veterans of Meghalaya politics who are respected across the party lines.

He is also known as '30-days Chief Minister', for he had survived in the chair just for 30 days after becoming CM on March 10, 1998. Then, he had succeeded SC Marak whose government had resigned just after 12 days of coming into power.

A master of coalition, he is still known for forming a jumbo 26-member ministry in 1998 to keep everyone happy and thus check desertion from his camp, but to no avail.

A lawyer by profession, Lyngdoh has been the architect of several coalition governments in his 30-year-long political career. He was Chief Minister in at least two of these.

He has been the chief minister from 6 May 1979 to 1982; 2nd March 1983 to 2nd April 1983; 1990 to 11 Oct 1991 and 10 March 1998 to March 8, 2000.

Lyngdoh, alongwith late Capt WA Sangma, is also remember for having experimented with a national government in which the regional group and Congress shared power equally for half the term, from April 1979 to 1983. While Lyngdoh was Chief Minister for the first half, Capt Sangma took over the reins for the second half.

In 1990, Lyngdoh became Chief Minister again after Purno A Sangma's government was toppled. Sangma was deserted by his coalition partners, one of whom was Lyngdoh's group.

First Published: Feb 13, 2003 14:41 IST