Its strength is set to increase by 3 seats once the current round of Rajya Sabha polls for 27 seats are concluded on June 28.
A tripartite pact -- amid the promise of removing AFSPA from almost all of the North East -- revives hydrocarbon exploration along the Assam-Nagaland border after decades of dormancy.
They will, however, remain in the Congress, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ampareen Lyngdoh said.
Sarma, who heads the Bharatiya Janata Party-led North East Development Alliance (NEDA), met Sangma at a hotel in Guwahati on Tuesday night, they said.
Thomas A Sangma of the ruling National People's Party-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) coalition was on Thursday elected as the speaker of the 11th Meghalaya assembly.
The ruling National People's Party (NPP) in Meghalaya won 26 seats, but fell four short of the halfway mark of 31.
Lapang retained cabinet affairs, political, personnel home (police), taxation, revenue, district council affairs and departments not allocated to any minister.
Meghalaya Chief Minister J D Rymbai resigned on Saturday.
Marak had laid down arms in 2014 and disbanded the ANVC-B militant group.
Shortly after his predecessor J D Rymbai resigned earlier in the day, Lapang called on Governor M M Jacob and staked claim to form the ministry stating that he was elected the new Congress Legislature Party leader.
BJP Meghalaya in-charge Chuba Ao said the party's 'Congress mukt campaign' is valid for the state and hence the party will seek clarification from the chief minister.
Rymbai said he was ready to face expulsion from the party.
'Discussions are on' within the saffron camp, and a final decision on whether to come out of the ruling coalition or not will be taken in one month, he claimed.
'I have put forth my papers, after due consultation with my party leadership, to allow a free and fair probe into the killing of Chesterfield Thangkhiew', Meghalaya home minister Lahkmen Rymbui said
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit attended the swearing in ceremony as did BJP president J P Nadda.
Six non-Congress parties and an independent MLA constitute the MDA government.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to accept the preliminary objections raised by opposition-ruled states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala to maintainability of Presidential Reference, saying the issues raised in it pertain to the very core and foundational modalities of the constitutional machinery.
National People's Party (NPP) president Conrad K Sangma on Monday said his party will have eight ministers in the next Meghalaya government headed by him, while its allies will get four ministerial berths.
A coalition government, led by National People's Party leader and outgoing chief minister Conrad Sangma, will be sworn-in on Tuesday morning in Meghalaya, while an all-party government, led by Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDDP's) Neiphiu Rio will take oath later in the day in Nagaland.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies are well on the way to power in two north-eastern states, and is almost certain to be part of the ruling dispensation in the third.
Marak, a former militant leader, had gone absconding following a police raid -- which started Friday night and ran till Saturday morning -- at the farmhouse at Tura in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district.
The Congress, which emerged as the single largest party, got the maximum number of 14 cabinet portfolios, while six were made ministers of state.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk called off his hunger strike as protests for Ladakh statehood and Sixth Schedule extension turned violent. The BJP office was set on fire, vehicles were torched, and clashes erupted, leading to the imposition of prohibitory orders.
In the raid, about 400 bottles of liquor and over 500 unused condoms were found, he added.
The chief minister of Meghalaya had met Shah late on Friday night urging the Central government to implement Inner Line Permit in the state.
The juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress registered a six-on-six clean sweep.
Stakes are high for the Bharatiya Janata Party, as the results will signal if it has deepened its roots in Tripura, and made further inroads in Meghalaya and Nagaland, or if the Opposition has managed to dent its influence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Nationalist Democratic Alliance-ruled states and prominent personalities from industry and Bollywood on Thursday attended the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister in Mumbai.
Sarma said no NDA partner will enter into any alliance with either Congress or the Trinamool Congress after the results are declared on Thursday.
The exit polls further pointed out that the northeastern state would have a hung house, with Sangma's National People's Party (NPP) emerging as the single-largest party.
Uncertain political times in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to the North East from Tuesday, during which he will attend the oath-taking ceremonies of new governments in three states of the region.
The letter said the high-powered committee of the ministry, which was holding talks with representatives from Ladakh, will meet them next on December 3.
Conrad Sangma on Friday evening submitted the letter of support to Meghalaya Governor Phagu Chauhan at Raj Bhawan signed by 32 MLAs of NPP, BJP, Hill State People's Democratic Party and two Independents.
A habeas corpus petition was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela for listing on October 3 by a lawyer for Wangchuk's "next friend".
Polling for assembly polls is underway in Meghalaya and Nagaland, northeastern states the Bharatiya Janata Party rules in alliance with regional powers.
The BJP, which has two MLAs in the MDA government, backed the Cabinet decision.
Wangchuk, who has been camping at Ladakh Bhawan in the national capital, is yet to be approached by a central government representative, a group member said.
Nagaland and Meghalaya BJP chief Temjen Imna Along and Ernest Mawrie, respectively also named party candidates approved by the party's central election committee.
Sangma, the outgoing chief minister, said he has support of the BJP, the HSPDP and two Independent MLAs, while asserting the total tally may go up in the coming days as he is in touch with other parties as well.
