SHILLONG: As MPs and MLAs get ready to elect the new President on Monday, past polls indicate that political timing of two State leaders was bad when they contested for the top post, first in 1992 and the last, 20 years later in 2012.
State political stalwarts GG Swell, who was a Rajya Sabha member, and PA Sangma, former Tura MP, had the support of BJP and their allies when they contested the presidential polls in 1992 and 2012, respectively. Unfortunately they were the candidates of the Opposition party.
Both were tribal Christians and were considered to be maintaining political neutrality in their dealings. Swell was an Independent candidate and Sangma was with NPP.
The two state candidates were also highly qualified for the top post.
While Swell, who was India’s envoy in Norway, had held the post of Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sangma donned many roles as the Lok Sabha Speaker, Meghalaya Chief Minister and Union Minister when he was with the Congress.
However, both of them were unlucky as BJP and their allies were not in power at the Centre.
Now, with the BJP-led NDA government in power, if any one of them were the nominee for the presidential polls, or if they had the consensus of all the political parties, then the State would have had the distinction of having two Presidents.
In the election held on July 24, 1992, Congress candidate Shankar Dayal Sharma won with 6,75,864 votes against his nearest rival GG Swell, who secured 3,46,485 votes.
Ram Jethmalani came third with just 2,704 votes.
The Congress was at the helm of affairs then with PV Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister.
In the presidential polls on July 19, 2012, the Congress-led UPA-II nominee Pranab Mukherjee secured 69 per cent votes and was elected the 13th President. Mukherjee secured 7,13,763 votes while Sangma got 3,15,987.