TURA: All was clearly not well in the once powerful bastion of Independent legislator and NCP candidate Saleng A Sangma.
Saleng Sangma who was a former Congress minister in the Mukul Sangma government was denied a party ticket in 2013 compelling him to contest as an Independent. The chief minister had been wary of him over his political ambitions.
However, despite an all-out offensive by the Congress against the Gambegre MLA who had to fight from two fronts, political as well as militancy because of GNLA commander Baichung Momin’s personal enmity against him, Saleng emerged victorious in that election winning by a huge margin of 3457 votes.
This was an election with a different outcome.
The Congress pulled out all stops to ensure the victory of Zenith Sangma’s wife Sadhiarani Sangma as it went on an aggressive campaign mode hoping to swing the peoples’ favour towards it.
They came very close to doing that, except that Saleng with all his political experience managed to upset their calculations and emerged victorious by a wafer thin margin of 136 votes, the lowest in Garo Hills.
The results in neighboring Ampati was a different take.
Despite a hopeful BJP wave in favour of former Sericulture Director Bakul Hajong, Chief Minister held his ground cruising through with a mammoth 8104 votes. The opposition voice was cut short.
