By Nabarun Goswami
SHILLONG: “People in Garo Hills, don’t know any party, they know their leader,” was the statement of a confident Nationalist People’s Party (NPP) chief Purno A Sangma, barely a week before the election for the 9th Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.
In what could be termed as an incredible fall, the former Lok Sabha Speaker’s newly formed party managed only two seats by the end of day when votes were counted, against a decent 15 seats in the last Assembly elections. The defeat of Leader of Opposition Conrad Sangma at the hands of Congress’ Clement Marak only added to the woes. Conrad lost by 2017 votes much to the dismay of party loyalists. NPP avoided a clean sweep for the Congress following James Sangma’s victory in Dadenggre and Nihim Shira’s retention in Songsak.
Nevertheless, the turn of events has put the political legacy of one of the State’s veterans and most popular politicians in disarray. With no numbers to bargain with and a party in tatters, it would be interesting to see the future course of action to be undertaken by the NPP to revive things for the better.
Another upset was that though NPP leader, Thomas Sangma gave up his Rajya Sabha seat to contest from North Tura, the effort went in vain. With the Lok Sabha elections due within a year, there would not be much role for PA Sangma and his NPP in the emerging scenario despite tying up with the BJP-led NDA.
Meanwhile, the major gainer in Garo Hills has been the Indian National Congress (INC) with Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma and the family leading the way along with other candidates he supported.
Dr Sangma retained the Ampati seat by a whopping margin of 9,096 while wife Dikanchi Shira, making her political debut, clinched the Mahendraganj seat with a huge margin.
Dr Mukul Sangma’s rise to prominence and several projects initiated by the current government might have also filled positive image in the minds of the people, political analysts observed. That the voters also backed the Chief Minister’s wife and brother hints at a new legacy in the offing in the otherwise Purno and family dominated Garo Hills.
The Congress snatched as many as 13 of the 24 Assembly seats in Garo Hills. Constituencies like Rongjeng, Kharkutta, Rangsakona and Resulbelpara which had gone to the NCP in 2008 are now with Congress.
Ironically, when Purno was in the prime of his political career, Mukul was a novice in politics. However, things have changed in the last few years and the current developments only bear testimony to that.
Garo Hills has been traditionally an NCP stronghold since the party’s inception in May 1999 with Purno Sangma as one of its top leaders apart from Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar. Even though Sangma later parted ways with the Pawar-led faction of the NCP, it did not change much as far as the equation back in the State is concerned.
However, Purno’s resignation from NCP following the failed attempt to contest the Presidential poll and subsequent formation of the ‘tribal-centric’ NPP seemed to have not gone down well with the people of Garo Hills and political observers believe that the frequent change of political parties on the part of PA Sangma has also added to the downfall. This also gave rise to fears of political instability among the people belonging to some of the most underdeveloped constituencies of the State.
“Purno, so to say, ruled over Garo Hills for over two decades, but the area has not seen much development despite the faith restored on him by the people. Mukul on the other hand has been able to make an impact in the last two years and the margin of his victory only goes to reiterate the shift of stance of the voters,” said a political observer.
The ‘master strategist’ in his own terms, Purno, now has to pull off a miracle to earn the lost pride back at least for the sake of his historical importance in the political state of affairs in the State as well as in the country.
