TURA: The National People’s Party (NPP) has selected former school teacher and party loyalist Clement G Momin as their candidate for the upcoming by-election to Ampati constituency in South West Garo Hills district.
Momin will take on former chief minister Mukul Sangma’s 27-year-old daughter Miani D Shira for the May 28 by-poll which has been necessitated after Sangma resigned from the seat and retained Songsak in East Garo Hills.
The former chief minister had won from both the constituencies in the February 27 general elections to the state legislature.
“Out of four aspirants who applied for the party ticket the candidature of Clement Momin was endorsed by the election board of the NPP that met in Tura on Friday afternoon,” told Nihim D Shira, senior NPP leader and national observer of the party for Ampati by-polls to The Shillong Times.
The three other candidates who applied for the party nomination were former MDC Binvichand D Sangma, Walseng Sangma and Drember Ch Marak, son-in-law of former Ampati MLA Monendro Agitok.
Momin, a former school teacher who also runs his own private school, had unsuccessfully contested against Mukul Sangma on two occasions.
In the 2008 election, he lost to Mukul by a margin of 2,966 votes. While Mukul secured 10,626 votes, Clement, contesting on NCP ticket, obtained 7,660 votes.
However, in the 2013 elections, the victory margin of Mukul soared to a staggering 9,036 votes.
The then chief minister secured 14,944 votes with 68.67 percent of the vote share while Momin had to be contended with only 5,908 votes (27.11 per cent of the votes).
Fresh from its victory in the just concluded Williamnagar election where NPP candidate Marcuise Marak won a convincing victory pushing the Congress candidate and former minister Deborah Marak to the third position, the party is optimistic that it can turn the tables on the Congress in Ampati too.
“We will give a tough fight to ensure our candidate’s triumph,” said Shira shortly after announcing the name of Momin.
Meanwhile, the BJP is contemplating to field its former candidate and retired Sericulture Director Bakul Hajong in Ampati.
“We are likely to put up a candidate and are currently in talks with senior leaders,” said National spokesperson and Meghalaya in-charge Nalin Kohli in a conversation with The Shillong Times over phone from New Delhi.
He added that being a national party, BJP follows certain procedures when it comes to elections and fielding of candidates.
On the candidature of Hajong who lost to Mukul in the February election, Kohli did not rule out any possibility but preferred to wait till a final confirmation is announced.
He did acknowledge that Hajong’s candidature should be logically considered under the prevailing circumstances. BJP is expected to take a decision by early next week.
