Shillong, March 10: Meghalaya today got a Congress government with neither the majority nor the confirmed support of regional parties that had partnered it in its previous term.

The Purno A. Sangma-led Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) was left screaming “murder of democracy” and contemplating a Supreme Court litigation after governor S.S. Sidhu invited D.D. Lapang’s Congress, which has only 25 legislators in a House of 60, to form the government. He gave Lapang 10 days to prove his majority.

None was more surprised by the turn of events than Sangma, whose Nationalist Congress Party had stitched a coalition with the United Democratic Party and paraded 30 legislators at Raj Bhavan earlier in the day.

The former Lok Sabha Speaker, who is making a comeback in state politics after a long stint as a Lok Sabha member, told Sidhu that the coalition had 31 members and the support of three Independents.

The governor told a news conference that he checked constitutional provisions and consulted legal experts before inviting Lapang to form the government.

The MPA, he said, was not the outcome of a pre-poll alliance and hence did not deserve precedence over the single-largest party.