SHILLONG: Rubbishing all talks of former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Agitok Sangma being his mentor in politics, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said that the NPP chief was only interested in promoting his near and dear ones.
“There has always been a misunderstanding that he (Sangma) was my mentor. I have never taken his help in my whole political career,” Dr Sangma said while talking to newsmen here on Wednesday.
“One may recall that he had projected his own son as the chief ministerial candidate. Not only this, he had bulldozed his way to make his son Conrad K Sangma the Leader of Opposition despite the latter being a first timer. There are many senior legislators who should have been given the post,” Dr Sangma added.
He also denied that the former Lok Sabha Speaker had told some of his colleagues that he was a chief minister material when he was first elected as an independent candidate in 1993. “I had never got such compliment from the NPP supremo,” the Chief Minister said.
Dr Sangma recollected that when he had first planned to contest in 1993, he had to face lot of difficulties since his resignation was not being accepted at the Zigzag PHC.
“I had sought the help of many Congress leaders at that time including Sangma (Purno) to help me in getting my resignation approved. I still remember till the first day of filing of nomination on January 12, 1993, I was still in Shillong moving from pillar to post to get my resignation approved. Finally, they accepted my resignation after I agreed to pay the bond amount,” he said.
He said that he could not apply for the party ticket and therefore, had to contest as an independent.
“After my victory, I joined the Congress as an associate member since I belong to a family which always supported the party,” Dr Sangma.
While everyone had suggested that he should bargain for a minister’s post, he however had no such aspirations and wanted to learn things first, the Chief Minister said.
“It was only in 1997 that I was made the parliamentary secretary assisting Minister of Finance, Border Area Development and Community Rural Development,” the Chief Minister informed.
He alleged that even in 1998, attempts were on to deny him the party ticket as the then District Congress Committee president Robin Marak was projected as the party candidate. “They were finally compelled to give me the ticket after I was a member of negotiation group along with former Tura legislator Late Skylance Momin during an MBoSE