TURA, MAR 20: Coming out of hiatus after six years and kicking off 2014 Lok Sabha elections for the Tura parliamentary seat on Thursday, former Lok Sabha speaker and National People’s Party (NPP) national president Purno A. Sangma took a jibed at chief minister Mukul Sangma by saying that he is the “chief minister of Ampati” and blamed him for utter chaos and lawlessness in the state.
Purno had represented Tura seat from 1977 for eight consecutive terms. He returns to active politics after a gap of six and half years. He had decided to quit national politics in 2008 to contest the assembly election in Meghalaya. However, now he is all set to return to the national politics and will be taking on the Congress nominee for the Tura Lok Sabha seat Daryl William Momin, who is the grandson of the first Meghalaya chief minister late Capt WA Sangma.
Purno will be filing his nomination tomorrow at Tura
Addressing his first elections rally at Adokgre in North Garo hills district, Purno, who had injured his ligament, and campaigning from a wheel chair quipped, “If Karunanidhi can sit on a wheel chair and be a member of parliament, why I can’t campaign”.
Deciding to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections himself after he had made way for his daughter Agatha Sangma during the last parliamentary elections, the veteran politician and Garo hills strongman unleashed an attack on the Congress party in Meghalaya for its failure to combat insurgency. Purno told the public rally, “Chief minister Mukul Sangma is shielding militants and harboring them. This has led to rise in insurgency, law and order breakdown, kidnapping and killing. There is no governance in Meghalaya.”
Giving his justification for returning to national politics, Purno he said this is the “need of the hour” adding, “The situation of Meghalaya and Garo hills has compelled me to contest”.Claiming that nobody is bothered about Northeast issues, he said so it was imperative on his part to come back.
Referring to January 12 last encounter at Darengagal near Tura, Purno said, “The encounter was planned by the government, as ANVC-B cadre, Ajaju Marak dared to speak on Mukul’s link with the outfit”.He also questioned, “Why was the ANVC-B cadre not identified, why were their photo not released?”
Dwelling on the Garo hills situation vis-à-vis insurgency, Purno said, “The national mode is for change and people of Garo hills have to decide, what they want”.
Chanting Narendra Modi’s mantra, “Freedom from Congress”, Purno gave details of mismanagement of central funds by chief minister Mukul Sangma. He said, “Mukul has diverted funds meant for welfare programmes across Garo hills and have utilized it for his advantage at Ampati”.Ampati is Mukul’s constituency.
Speaking about corruption and mood of the nation, Purno said, “Congress MPs are not willing to contest and some even have refused tickets, as they fear defeat”.
Purno went on to name P Chidambaram, A K Anthony, C P Joshi, G K Vasant and others, who have refused to contest.
On price rise and failure of UPA-I and II to live up to the expectation of the people, Purno asked, “Why do we need a government, who has failed to curb price hike?”
Purno reminded the crowd that during the last two tenure of the UPA, petrol price has been hiked 22 times and onion price became costlier than gold.
Sitting MP from Tura, Agatha Sangma, who accompanied her father said, “I have learnt that it is not easy for a newcomer to make things happen in parliament. We need an experience politician to represent Garo hills and Northeast in New Delhi”.
She also clarified that she had to vacate the seat for her love towards Garo hills, which needs a seasoned politician.- By Our Correspondent
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