With NCP leader Purno A Sangma meeting Meghalaya Governor R S Mooshahary on Thursday, a day after Meghalaya Chief Minister Donkupar Roy visited the Raj Bhavan, the political circles here were rife with speculation that the NCP-United Democratic Party (UDP) led Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) was on the verge of collapse. Adding fuel to the fire, Congress leader D D Lapang too visited the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday.

However, Roy and Assembly Speaker Bindo M Lanong rubbished the reports of a collapse. “The MPA Government is intact and all these talks of some members from the UDP and NCP meeting Congress leaders are misleading,” Lanong told an UDP Women’s Convention on Thursday.

Governor Mooshahary, too, said he had invited the three leaders to discuss matters of “governance” before the scheduled Governors Conference to be held in New Delhi on September 16 and 17. Asked if they had discussed the “political scenario” in the state, Mooshahary said: “Well, if you meet politicians you ultimately end up talking a bit of politics.”

“All of us were present at the parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday and nobody is likely to switch loyalities to the Congress and desert the party,” UDP legislator Ampareen Lyngdoh clarified. She, however, conceded that there were “rumblings by some UDP legislators”, adding that it “does not mean they are going to pull the carpet from the MPA Government”.