TURA/SHILLONG, Nov 2: Political pundits had for weeks predicted a doomsday for the NPP with even election ‘strategists’ crunching numbers that clearly went out of favour for the Conrad K Sangma-led party.
The “yes” vote was for Congress chief Vincent Pala in Mawryngkneng and Mawphlang while in Rajabala it was deemed a “positive” for former chief minister Mukul Sangma.
At best, the NPP would reconcile with the third position in Rajabala and a possible runners-up at Mawryngkneng, it was predicted.
Talk in Rajabala was about a direct contest between the UDP’s Ashahel D Shira, a former legislator from the same seat, with the Congress’ Hashina Yasmin Mondal, widow of the then sitting legislator Dr Azad Zaman.
NPP candidate in Rajabala, Md Abdus Saleh was apparently having no takers.
After all, these have been two indomitable bastions of the Congress party for years together.
While Mawryngkneng happened to be the family turf of Congress strongman Charles Pyngrope and his late son, David Nongrum, the plain-belt region of Rajabala was regarded by many to be a stronghold of former chief minister Mukul Sangma.
Mukul had gone out of his way to extensively campaign for the Congress candidate, pushing in his younger brother Zenith M Sangma and some of his closest aides into the campaign trail.
Almost all campaign rallies of the former chief minister witnessed record turnouts when it came to the numbers game.
But, while Mukul’s campaigns were drawing large crowds, something else was clicking for the NPP in a constituency where a great divide prevailed between the hills and the plains people.
To break the congress stranglehold on Rajabala, Conrad K Sangma did what no other chief minister has done in the past.
He pitched camp in Rajabala, shuffling between the hills and the plains for a record six days — meeting with voters and trying to connect with them in the hope of disconnecting the Congress fuse.
In a statement to The Shillong Times at the height of the campaign, the chief minister remarked that people, particularly in the hill region were pleasantly surprised to see the head of the state staying over and spending time with them in their hamlets listening to their grievances.
“It was a kind of bonding with them and we were also able to understand firsthand the problems they were going through,” the chief minister had said at that time.
That “bonding” also had political ramifications for the Congress as its arch rival NPP began consolidating bases in the hills, leaving no space for the Congress to share.
As the Congress became the third wheel in the hills, left behind by UDP’s Ashahel D Shira in pole position, the NPP was gradually chipping away at the blocks.
Tuesday’s results reveal that in those polling stations up in the hills where Ashahel swept the votes, the NPP managed to cling on, even if it was a distant second. The Congress, on the other hand, was virtually decimated.
This runners-up position kept the NPP votes coming in, even though reduced, while the plains became the main battleground for both rival parties.
“There was a game plan to deny us (NPP) votes in the hills by way of the UDP candidate’s presence and the hope the Congress would sweep the plains leaving the NPP routed. This did not succeed because we saw through their game plan and people were yearning for a change and a chance for development,” reveals minority leader and former MDC, Sofiur Rahman who had campaigned extensively for the NPP candidate.
In the end it was a neck to neck battle for the plains vote by the Congress and NPP, and a tussle for supremacy in the hills, between Ashahel and Abdus Saleh.
The votes obtained from its second position in the hills finally helped the NPP sail through creating a history of sorts for the family of PA Sangma.
In Mawryngkneng, desertion by a top leader seems to have hurt Congress.
The party lost influential block-level leader Norbert Marboh. Unhappy with the Congress’s decision to field Highlander Kharmalki, Marboh left the Congress and contested as an independent candidate.
Marboh was able to secure 1,400 votes. NPP candidate Pyniaid Sing Syiem won the seat by a margin of 1,816 votes.
Kharmalki also admitted that Marboh’s departure from Congress affected his prospects and of others as he took away some crucial votes.
The situation was no different in Mawphlang where four-time Congress MDC Lamphrang Blah quit ahead of the by-elections and joined the NPP after Congress opted to field former MLA Kennedy C. Khyriem.
Blah finished third behind UDP’s Eugeneson Lyngdoh and Khyriem.
The Congress candidate admitted that Blah’s defection affected his prospects.