SHILLONG: After suffering defeat in the by-election to Ampati Assembly constituency in the state, Chief Minister and NPP president, Conrad Sangma felt that the result of the by-election was a concern for the Congress as the winning margin had come down from 8000 in the last Assembly polls to only around 3000 votes.
The Congress was successful to retain Ampati which is considered as the bastion for Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma, by a reduced margin of only 3191 votes.
Speaking to media persons shortly after the results of Ampati by-election were declared, Conrad Sangma said that nothing went wrong with NPP since Ampati constituency was held by Mukul Sangma for the last 25 years and It was clear that people there wanted to continue with that and party (NPP) respected the mandate of the people.
Sangma, however, was happy with the fact that NPP improved its position in Ampati and it was the Congress which should be concerned over the fact that their winning margin had dropped down to around 3000.
Sangma also rubbished the speculations that the win for Congress in Ampati would bring ramifications in the NPP and the coalition government saying the NPP has its own 20 MLAs and their government is a 38-member coalition.
“All are committed to this coalition and recently even an independent MLA has joined UDP and our coalition,” he said
Admitting that a victory in Ampati would have been positive for the coalition and the government, he, however, claimed that the win for Congress in Ampati would not affect his Government in any way.
Refusing to admit that the loss in Ampati was a jolt for the NPP, he said that it was a tough battle and NPP fought it very hard.
He also congratulated the Congress candidate, Miani D Shira and thanked all the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) leaders who campaigned for the NPP candidate in Ampati.