TURA, MAY 19: The Congress party suffered a major body blow as it was dissipated in Garo hills as the National People Party (NPP) candidate and national president Conrad K Sangma swept the Tura Lok Sabha bye-polls winning from 23 out of the 24 assembly constituencies in Garo hills.
Conrad, the youngest son of late Lok Sabha speaker Purno A Sangma, trounced his Congress rival Dikkanchi Shira by a massive 1.93 lakhs votes in the result declared on Thursday. Dikkanchi- wife of chief minister Mukul Sangma, in fact lost even in her own constituency Mahendraganj but managed to scraped through in her husband constituency Ampati by a narrow margin of only 1500 votes.
Conrad massive victory margin is an indication of the Congress waning popularity in Garo hillls.
The Tura bye-elections was necessitated after the sudden demise
of Purno A Sangma, a doyen of Meghalaya politics who had cut out niche for himself in the national politics and went on to occupy the office of Lok Sabha speaker- the only politician from north east to hold the position after having served in the national cabinet in various department.
Late Sangma two sons James K Sangma and Conrad K Sangma and daughter Agatha K Sangma had been initiated in politics earlier on. James is the sitting legislator while Conrad is a former state finance minister with youngest daughter having done her time as union minister of state after she was elected as Tura MP before Purno decided to come back to national politics.
After his father’s death, Conrad decided to contest the Tura bye-poll to fill in the void left by his father Purno A Sangma- who had represented the constituency for record ten terms.
Desperate to snatch the Tura Lok Sabha seat the Congress decided to field legislator Dikkanci Shira, wife of chief minister Mukul Sangma against Purno’s youngest son.
The BJP, meantime, decided to not to field its candidate stating that the party would support Conrad K Sangma as a mark of tribute to late Purno as he and his party NPP were close ally of the BJP.
The stage was therefore set for one-to-one showdown between late Purno’s youngest son and the chief minister’s wife.
The campaigning by both the parties- NPP and Congress- were of high decibel as the Congress targeted the BJP more than the NPP and the latter left no stone unturned to discredited the Congress party blaming it for its failure to bring development in Garo hills in particular and the state in general.
CHART
Total electorates: 6,22,189
Polling percentage: 77.66 %
Total valid votes: 4,66,782
Conrad Sangma: 3,29,497
Dikkanchi D. Shira: 1,37,285
NOTA: 16597– From Our Correspondent
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