TURA: The Congress on Thursday won the by-poll to Ampati legislative constituency with a comfortable margin defeating a resurgent NPP and proving to its opponents that its citadel remains intact.
However, there are chinks in the Congress’s armour after the results revealed a massive drop in its victory margin for the first time in its election history.
Congress candidate Miani D Shira, daughter of former chief minister Mukul Sangma, defeated NPP’s Clement G Momin by a margin of 3,191 votes.
Three months back, when general elections to the state assembly took place, the then Chief Minister Mukul Sangma had won from Ampati by a margin of 8,104 votes against BJP’s Bakul Hajong.
This time there has been a drop of 4,913 votes.
Shira had polled 14,259 votes against Momin’s 11,068. The third candidate in the fray, Independent Subhankar Koch forfeited his security deposit by polling a meagre 360 votes, 152 more than the NOTA symbol.
In the postal ballots count, the Congress candidate secured 16 votes while seven went to the NPP.
In the five rounds of counting, the Congress was ahead of the NPP in all but one. During the second round of counting, NPP overtook the Congress by 63 votes with Momin at 2,705.
But the third and fourth rounds sealed the fate of the NPP as the margin of victory for the Congress began to increase.
By the time the final announcement was made, NPP supporters had fizzled away leaving only the jubilant Congress supporters waving flags and shouting slogans in support of their candidate.
Outside the centre, a victorious Shira was mobbed by hundreds of supporters who garlanded and hugged her marching alongside back to her home, a short distance away.