With just one week left for the results of the Gambegre by-election, political parties are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that their candidates win the seat.
The by-election was held on November 13 and the results will be declared on November 23. The by-poll was necessitated following the resignation of sitting legislator Saleng Sangma of Congress, who won the Tura Lok Sabha seat earlier this year.
33,088 voters, including 16,207 women and 16,881 men, exercised their franchise in the by-election held at 51 polling stations.
The by-election has turned into a prestige issue for the NPP and Congress which is trying to retain the seat.
While the contest is mostly triangular between the ruling NPP, Congress and Trinamool Congress, the NPP is confident of victory in the by-poll given the hard campaigning by Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and his ministers throughout the length and breadth of the constituency.
There were complaints by the Trinamool Congress that NPP leaders distributed CGI sheets and also promised various developmental schemes to voters of Gambegre constituency.
There are six candidates for the seat with the ruling NPP fielding the chief minister’s wife and practicing physician Dr. Mehtab Chandee Agitok Sangma who is pitted against Sadhiarani Sangma (Trinamool Congress), Jingjang Marak (Congress), Bernard Marak (BJP) and two Independents, Sengkrabirth Marak and Jerry Sangma.
The chief minister, who is also NPP national president campaigned extensively in support of his wife over the last three weeks and assured the electorate on development of roads, education and health infrastructure in the Gambegre assembly constituency.
Similarly, former minister Zenith Sangma’s wife Sadhiarani Sangna is a candidate of the Trinamool Congress. Sadhiarani, a sitting member in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, has contested the Gambegre Assembly seat for two consecutive terms, coming a close second to former Congress MLA Saleng Sangma.
Saleng who represented Gambegre for four consecutive terms has campaigned hard for his close aide, Jingjang Marak.
