GUWAHATI: The National People’s Party has said that the party would decide its nominee for the Tura Lok Sabha constituency in due course even as Agatha Sangma’s name is doing the rounds after chief minister Conrad K Sangma’s decision to resign from the parliamentary seat before September 10.
Party sources had said on Wednesday that the chief minister, who posted a thumping win in the South Tura by-poll recently, would resign from the Tura Lok Sabha seat either in the first week of September or before tenth of the month.
In fact, the chief minister had planned to put in his papers in Parliament much earlier but the hectic schedule ahead of the by-poll prompted him to defer the resignation till September.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Thursday, NPP national general secretary, Thomas A Sangma said that since there would be no by-poll once the seat is vacated, the party would decide on its nominee for the LS seat “only in due course”.
Election department sources say that parliamentary seat poll will be held simultaneously with the general elections next year.
The Meghalaya Congress too has not taken any decision on its future course of action in this regard.
Asked whether there was plan to nominate anyone from the party for the LS seat, Meghalaya PCC president Celestine Lyngdoh echoed similar views.
“I don’t think there will be any by-election to the seat now and the general elections are more than six months away from now,” Lyngdoh said, hinting that there is time for the party to decide on its nominee for the parliamentary constituency.
It was in May 2016 when Conrad K Sangma had won the Tura LS seat by a huge margin to retain the constituency held by his illustrious father, Purno A Sangma.
Conrad, who had in fact taken the reins of National People’s Party (NPP) following the demise of his father earlier that year, had defeated his lone rival, the then chief minister Mukul Sangma’s wife, Dikkanchi D Shira by the highest margin by which the Congress has ever lost in the parliamentary elections in the state.
Going by the grapevine, the NPP is likely to field Conrad’s sister, Agatha while Congress may nominate Mukul’s son-in-law and Ampati MLA, Miani D Shira’s husband, Daryl William Momin to contest the parliamentary seat. Back in 2014, Daryl had lost the election to the LS seat to Purno A Sangma.
Tura along with Shillong are the two LS seats going to the hustings along with the general elections in April-May next year. The Shillong parliamentary seat is currently held by Vincent H Pala of Congress.
As on date, speculations over Pala planning to defect to NPP surfaced after his visit to the NPP at Lower Lachumiere on Monday. The Pala visited the NPP office hours after the declaration of the results of the twin bye-elections in Ranikor and South Tura, thereby prompting such rumours.
However, Pala has reportedly ruled out any plan to join NPP, saying he would contest the LS seat from Congress.