Every so often, Dr Mukul Sangma, Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister, will pop his head above the parapet of Meghalaya politics, fire a salvo at the government and then duck back down into relative safety.
Such was the case last week when he launched a blistering attack on the government over the Tura Medical College, militant-politico nexus, the NEHU impasse, construction projects and more.
He often lands a blow but his attacks are too infrequent to really trouble the government. And while Dr Sangma is still a force to be reckoned with, he seems to be becoming less and less relevant to Meghalaya politics.
In opposition since 2018, the former CM did not help matters by defecting from the Congress Party to the TMC in 2021. He may have felt he had no choice if he was being sidelined following the appointment of Vincent Pala as state Congress chief but the TMC was not the vehicle for him. He did not want to play the long game and form his own party (with all the risk that entails), like Ardent Basaiawmoit did with the VPP, so he plumped for the TMC as the least bad option.
Unfortunately for Dr Sangma, the TMC was effectively tainted by being a “Bengali” party. That label stuck and was damning in a state that is not above a little xenophobia now and then. Possibly the only party worse would be the BJP – no matter that it has run the country since 2014 and a number of other North East states since then, Meghalaya has proven adamantly resilient to the saffron party’s charm offensives.
So, Mukul has toughed it out in the wilderness of the TMC, with few good options for him. Even in subsequent elections his brand has not found enough favour for him to mount a comeback – even his beloved Garo Hills isn’t being swayed.
Having only turned 60 last month, he is still not too old for Meghalaya’s young voters. But in many ways, he lacks the charm of his chief rival, the current CM, Conrad Sangma.
Although intelligent, Mukul isn’t eloquent and tends to ramble on a lot. He was also infamous for being late when CM – programmes that he was meant to attend would sometimes be delayed for an hour or more because he was somewhere else. And while he often attacks the government on corruption, the public are unlikely to have forgotten the many allegations regarding his government on this score.
Meghalaya needs a strong opposition – three parties outside the governing coalition hold just a handful of seats, which means that the government can escape being held to account. Mukul, however, may not be the one for the job. The baton looks to be passing to the VPP, at least in Khasi-Jaintia Hills. Although Basaiawmoit has spoken about the possibility of taking the party to Garo Hills, it hasn’t yet happened. Even so, based on its current trajectory, the VPP should become a major player once the next election rolls round. Whether Mukul will still have a role to play remains to be seen. But don’t count the wily politician out.
