From Our Correspondent
TURA, Nov 23: The National People’s Party on Saturday wrested Gambegre, a Congress citadel, months after the latter breached the former’s bastion – the Tura Lok Sabha seat.
Earlier this year, Saleng Sangma won the Tura constituency that the PA Sangma family held for decades. The NPP extracted its pound of flesh by not only winning Gambegre, the seat he vacated but also relegating Congress to the third spot.
The NPP’s Mehtab Chandee A Sangma, the wife of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, defeated Sadhiarani M Sangma of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to win Gambegre by 4,594 votes. Jingjang M Marak of Congress, a close confidant of Saleng Sangma, finished third.
Counting began at 8 am with 32 postal ballots. Twelve of these went to the NPP, nine to the TMC, and eight to Congress while three were rejected.
The trend was similar through four rounds of counting of 90.93% of the votes cast at the polling booths. Mehtab Chandee won 12,768 of these votes followed by Sadhiarani with 8,084, and Marak with 7,695.
The BJP’s Bernard N Marak ended up a poor fourth with 710 votes, four more than the votes bagged by independent candidate Jerry Sangma.
Another independent, Sengkrabirth Marak managed 147 votes while 95 voted for NOTA.
After Saleng Sangma defeated Agatha K Sangma to end the NPP hold on the Tura parliamentary seat, Congress was expected to retain Gambegre. The loss in the constituency has left Congress with only one MLA in the 60-member House.
The Gambegre win is all the more significant for the NPP as it was Saleng Sangma’s stronghold for the past three elections.
For the TMC’s Sadhiarani, the loss was the third in a row. She lost a close fight with Saleng Sangma in 2018, who retained the seat comfortably in 2023.
The Chief Minister accompanied Mehtab Chandee to the office of the West Garo Hills DC after the win to complete the formalities. Speaking to media persons, she thanked the people of Gambegre for helping her win the seat.
“The message is loud and clear that people have voted for change and development. This is what we as a party and leadership encourage. I think the whole of Garo Hills and Meghalaya is experiencing this change with the NPP at the helm,” she said.
The CM expressed happiness with his wife’s win and said this was a vote for change.
“We want to assure the people of Gambegre that we will work to keep our promises despite the challenges,” he said, thanking his party members and leaders who worked over the past month to bring about the win.
Soon after the NPP emerged victorious in the multi-cornered contest, Congress went quiet while the BJP dissected its strategy.
The MDA attributed the outcome to the wisdom of the people as the TMC lauded the efforts of its workers in putting up a strong fight in the election.
MDA spokesperson Paul Lyngdoh said the result was an endorsement of the MDA’s performance.
Recalling that Congress swept the Garo Hills in May, he said the political scenario in the state can change within a week.
BJP spokesperson Mariahom Kharkrang said a lot of things went wrong for the party in the polls and it’s now time for it to introspect and go for course correction.
“We may have to change our campaign strategy in Meghalaya. We will have to counter the display of the religious card and take necessary corrective action,” he said.
TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee congratulated the party’s Meghalaya unit for its tireless efforts and for putting up a formidable fight despite all odds.
“I salute all the foot soldiers of our Meghalaya unit and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to restoring Meghalaya’s lost glory. A special thanks to the people of Gambegre for their love and support,” he said.
Opposition Chief Whip and Congress leader Ronnie V. Lyngdoh said that while the party respects the verdict of the people, the by-poll result indicated people want development.
“The people have given their verdict and we respect the verdict. In Meghalaya, whenever there are by-elections, people prefer somebody from the ruling side to address their issues,” he said.
“People are smart and vote differently in different elections,” he added.
“This only indicates that people want development. Perhaps the expectations and aspirations keep growing,” Lyngdoh said.
“The people (of Gambegre) thought of voting for the CM’s wife hoping their expectations would be fulfilled,” he said.