TURA: Victorious NPP candidate Agatha K Sangma has told crowds of cheering supporters that the interests of Garo Hills would be her top priority as she heads to the Indian Parliament as the new representative from the region.
“This election has been very important for our Tura Lok Sabha constituency because we have a chance to do a lot of good work because a good working mechanism will be there since our government is in the state and we are an alliance partner in Delhi,” a confident Agatha Sangma said.
Speaking to media persons after returning from a victory rally taken out in Tura, Agatha said, “I assure the people of the region that I will make the best efforts at bringing development during my tenure for the next five years.”
While expressing disappointment with the opposition for running a campaign of criticism against her, she appealed to supporters to take it in their stride. “We should not be like them. Let us set aside our criticism,” said Agatha.
This is Agatha’s third successive election for the parliamentary seat and one legislative assembly contest.
Agatha Sangma was first elected to Parliament from Tura in a bye-election in 2008 when she was 29 years old. She was elected again in the 2009 General Elections, and chosen by the Congress-led government as the youngest Union minister. However, in 2014, PA Sangma contested from the seat and won.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, Agatha Sangma won the South Tura seat but gave it up so that a bye-election could be held to give her brother a seat after he was made chief minister.
Mukul Sangma, once an outsider in politics, has never lost an Assembly election since he entered the field and won the Ampati seat in 1993. After a brief career in public health, he had contested as an independent candidate, and later joined the Congress.
Mukul Sangma continued to win the seat and became chief minister in 2010 – a post he held until 2018, when Conrad Sangma took over. Two attempts at the Lok Sabha against PA Sangma failed in 2004 and 2006. The 54-year-old won Ampati in 2018 as well, but gave it up for his daughter Miani D Shira as he had won two seats.
Newly elected Selsella MLA of the NPP, Mrs Ferline C A Sangma said that the good work done by the NPP under chief minister Conrad K Sangma has also resonated in her election victory.
“People of Selsella have been crying for development. For better roads, schools, drinking water and health care. They have a lot of hope in our NPP government and I shall not disappoint them,” said Ferline Sangma