SHILLONG: This will be the first Lok Sabha election without PA Sangma, who consecutively contested and won the Tura Lok Sabha seat from 1977 till 2016, except the time when he was the chief minister of Meghalaya from 1988-90 and in 2009.
The state NPP leaders admitted that the late leader has left a vacuum and his contribution is narrated during election campaigns.
The 2018 Assembly polls were also without Sangma, who passed away in March 2016.
Tura seat has been the stronghold of PA Sangma and his family. The NPP managed to wrestle the seat from the might of the ruling Congress in 2014 and 2016.
“We won the elections in our worst. People of Garo Hills believe in our leader PA Sangma. It is all the more important that we take his mission forward and try to achieve the development goal for the people,” Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had said during a rally in North Garo Hills recently.
As per records, the late leader from Garo Hills was never defeated though he changed parties from the Congress to NCP and then to All India Trinamool Congress and finally formed NPP.
The veteran leader won 10 Lok Sabha elections, including by-polls from Tura and two Assembly polls from the same constituency over the years. After he came back to state politics in 2008, he did not contest the parliamentary polls in 2009 to pave the way for daughter Agatha Sangma who retained the seat.
An NPP leader said though PA Sangma is no more, his charisma will be remembered by the people of Garo Hills as his son and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and daughter Agatha, who is contesting from Tura, are committed to following in his footsteps.
A difficult Lok Sabha election for Sangma was in 2014 when he took on greenhorn Darly Momin of the Congress and son-in-law of CLP leader Mukul Sangma as the vote margin was 39,716, the lowest since 1980.
However, in the first election in 1977, the victory margin was 14,034 as the number of voters was less at that time.
The victory margin in 1998 was the highest at 1,77,659.
Sangma had defeated Mukul twice, in 2004 and 2006.
