Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has been telling the citizens of Tura that they must jump on the bandwagon of what he said is a wave of support in favour of his National People’s Party (NPP) so that they do not miss out.
“Opposition MLAs have seen that the public mood is strongly in our favour, otherwise why would those legislators from the Trinamool and the Congress besides regional parties come and join us?” the CM said at a campaign event in Tura on Sunday. “Jimmy D Sangma and Marthon J Sangma from Trinamool Congress, Ampareen Lyngdoh, Mohendro Rapsang and Kimfa Marbaniang from Congress, Hamletson Dohling, Samlin Malngiang and others have joined us because they know it is going to be a stable NPP government with a clear majority.”
Both North Tura and South Tura seats are in the hands of the NPP, with Conrad the sitting MLA for the latter. He won that seat in a by-election; it was originally won by his sister Agatha Sangma, who made way so that her brother could enter the Assembly and lead Meghalaya as CM. The siblings effectively switched seats – he took over South Tura while Agatha moved into his Lok Sabha seat.
Although Conrad won a clear majority of votes in the by-election, his sister did not have it so easy, claiming 28.51 percent of the vote in the general election.
“Voters of Tura are not going to vote for Conrad Sangma alone but the Chief Minister of the state and your votes will have a rippling effect across the state and benefit others,” he said. “Look at Rongjeng – your vote for me five years ago helped me to work together for the people of Rongjeng to see their dream of a civil sub-division come true.”
On preventing any return of militancy and the bloody incidents of previous years, the Chief Minister said that his government has been proactive to ensure that peace remains at the forefront of democracy and governance.
It was largely under Congress rule that militancy was quashed but Conrad did not recognise that, instead taking credit for making sure that a revival of militancy did not take place during his reign. One partial success story, however, has been the start of talks with the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) but those only began after the outfit carried out several improvised explosive device (IED) attacks, including two in the state capital.
