The National People’s Party (NPP) expects to hold on to the Tura parliamentary seat when the results of the election there are declared on June 4 but it is not oozing confidence, with predictions of only a narrow victory.
Agatha K Sangma, who has barrels of name recognition, being the daughter of the late Purno A Sangma and sister of Conrad K Sangma, is seeking a fourth term in Parliament. However, NPP leaders have admitted that she faced a tough fight from the Congress party’s Saleng Sangma.
A day after cabinet minister Marcuise Marak said something similar, fellow minister Rakkam A Sangma today said that the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could be blamed for the swing away from the NPP.
The Hindu nationalist BJP chose not to field candidates in Meghalaya, instead backing coalition ally the NPP. Such support appears to have been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the NPP would have received BJP votes. But, on the other hand, voters who dislike or distrust the BJP in Christian-majority Meghalaya, might have been put off voting for the NPP altogether.
Parts of Garo Hills also have large numbers of Muslim residents, who might have been especially resentful of the NPP taking the support of the BJP, which is seen to be anti-minority.
Rakkam today said that the fight for Tura was tougher than expected but the NPP is still hopeful of winning, albeit by a small margin.
He said that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) voters plumped for Saleng en masse and “misleading propaganda” using religious sentiments by the Congress poisoned the waters against the NPP.
Lamenting that some church people were carried away with the propaganda used during the polls, he added that the NPP never sought the support of the BJP but it was the latter who decided themselves not to field candidates.
The NPP is not even confident of having won the BJP supporters over. The decision not to contest the two Meghalaya seats was taken by the party high command in New Delhi, not locally. Many supporters on the ground in Meghalaya reportedly did not like being told to vote for the NPP.
Rakkam said that if all the BJP supporters (estimated at 90,000 in the constituency) supported Agatha, then she will definitely win but he is not sure if that really happened.
