Tura, Nov 24: For a party that had its back against the wall after the drubbing it received at the hands of the Congress in this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the Gambegre victory couldn’t have been any sweeter.
After a shocking defeat of its sitting MP Agatha K Sangma by the Congress’ Saleng A Sangma in the Tura Lok Sabha seat, the NPP has returned fire and turned the tables on its bitter rival.
The morale of the Conrad K Sangma led party has been boosted by the victory of Mehtab Chandee A Sangma in Gambegre. And the icing on the cake for the NPP is its victory in the bastion of Saleng Sangma- the man who defeated Agatha Sangma and vacated his assembly seat in the hope of getting his own candidate elected.
It couldn’t have been worse for the Congress. After a successful Lok Sabha elections in Garo Hills, the Congress had hoped to strengthen and expand its base. It turned out to be the opposite.
While the Congress made representation from Tura seat in Parliament after two long decades, it saw its numbers crumble in the state.
The victory of Saleng Sangma in the Lok Sabha polls reduced the number of party MLAs to just 4 in the state assembly after he vacated the Gambegre seat. It also made it easier for fence-sitters to cross over, and switch they did. Three senior sitting legislators of the party crossed over to the ruling NPP. The party was left with a lone Ronnie Lyngdoh in the state assembly.
It was a different story altogether for the NPP. The defection of three Congress MLAs to the party steered the NPP comfortably over the majority mark in the assembly, boosting the numbers to 32 legislators.
Saturday’s victory of Dr Mehtab Chandee A Sangma has further solidified the NPP’s gains and crumbled any hope of a Congress revival, any time soon.
