SHILLONG: Veteran leader from Garo Hills Purno Agitok Sangma may have staged a comeback to national politics after a gap of six years, but his victory this time was by no means comfortable.
Purno secured the lowest ever margin this time (39,716 votes) since 1980 with an exception in the first election which he contested in 1977 (14,034 vote margin). In 1977, however, the total number of voters in Tura was much less compared to 2014.
The Congress has improved its performance this time even though the party fielded a political greenhorn. The Congress candidate Daryl Momin polled 199,585 votes as against 239,301 votes polled by Purno.
The margins of Purno over the years were: 1980 (69249 votes), 1984 (78738), 1991 (94379), 1996 (164790), 1998 (177659), 1999 (113579), 2004 (72763) and in 2006 by-election (101176).
In 2004 and 2006 elections, Purno’s nearest rival was Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
In 2008, when Purno made his re-entry into state politics, his daughter Agatha Sangma won the by election with a margin of 99,856 votes defeating present Cabinet Minister Zenith M. Sangma.
However, in 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Agatha’s winning margin was reduced to 17945 when she contested against the Congress leader Deborah Marak.
Some Congress members said if Deborah had contested this time, the Congress would have emerged victorious.
The choice of candidate by the Congress is another factor which was not favourable to the party in this election. The AICC had first cleared the name of Cabinet Minister Zenith Sangma to contest the Tura seat, only to announce a while later the candidature of Daryl Momin.
Momin did not get the much needed support from the grassroot as he was new to the party.
Congress sources said that the credit for popularizing Momin and reducing the victory margin of Purno should go to the Chief Minister who had spent almost a month in Garo Hills campaigning for the Congress candidate.
