National People’s Party candidate, Marquise Marak has won the Williamnagar seat in a convincing victory. Marquise got 9656 votes and defeated his closest rival Sengbath Marak (Independent) by a margin of 4920 votes. The Congress and NPP now have 20 MLAs each since Dr Mukul Sangma has abandoned the Ampati seat and is fielding his daughter from there. Conrad Sangma too has to resign his MP seat and contest the state assembly election within September this year. He is looking for a safe constituency and will contest from South Tura Constituency which will be vacated by his sister Agatha Sangma the sitting MLA. With one more MLA in its kitty the NPP is in jubilant and expects to win the Ampati seat too for everyone loves a winner. Ironically, the Congress candidate, Deborah Marak came a poor third but that too was expected. People voted for change whichever way we look at it!
Leading a coalition government with the BJP, UDP, HSPDP etc, as partners, Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma has begun his tenure in right earnest. His government appears to have set some goals for itself and to list out the priorities for the state. His personal visit to the Umroi airport to check out the reasons for the backlog and later his visit to the Performing Arts Centre in the New Shillong township are seen as pro-active ways of speeding up development. It is pointless having endless meetings in the Secretariat if the Chief Minister and other ministers do not see first-hand what’s happening on the ground. Most projects are held up and suffer from time and cost overruns because ministers don’t dedicate time and energy to ensure they come up on record time or because they are in collusion with the contractors. This government came to power on the premise of change. It is hoped that this premise remains the abiding goal of the MDA Government.