Tura, Aug 17: With the passing away of Salseng C Marak, Meghalaya has lost a towering personality and one of the most influential political leaders of his time. The former Meghalaya Chief Minister and Congress leader passed away in Tura on Friday. He was 83.
A state funeral is being accorded today for the former chief minister at his home constituency of Resubelpara by the Meghalaya Government, announced Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma.
The mortal remains of Late Salseng C Marak have arrived at his home in Gajingpara village of Resubelpara.
Marak had been battling poor health for the past few weeks and was admitted to Tura Civil Hospital, last week.
Old age and frailty was attributed to his hospitalization and subsequent demise.
Salseng Marak was among the rare breed of politicians who managed to successfully navigate through political instability in a state that was infamous for coalition government collapses.
He took over from D D Lapang and led the state for a full five year term from February 1993 to March 1998. Late B B Lyngdoh took over from him to form the next coalition government of regional parties, but failed to break Marak’s five year term.
But, he also went down in the history of Meghalaya politics for holding the shortest period of 12 days in government when he tried to form the next government when the state threw up a fractured verdict.
He became state CM on March 10, 1998 but couldn’t continue beyond 12 days when his Congress-led coalition failed to muster a majority and he resigned paving way for United Parliamentary Forum leader BB Lyngdoh to become the next CM.
As Congress Parliamentary leader in the opposition, he came close to bringing down the NCP-led coalition Government of Dr F A Khonglam in December 2002 on the issue of granting licence for running a lottery in the state. He eventually abandoned the move due to opposition of other senior leaders.
