Congress wins Meghalaya bypoll defeating ruling alliance’s candidate

Bijay Sankar Bora
Tribune News Service
Guwahati, May 31

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) led by the National People’s Party (NPP) have failed to wrest Ampati LAC in Meghalaya from the grip of Congress, which has comfortably won the by-election held to the constituency by defeating the ruling NPP as per the poll results declared on Thursday.

With this win Congress has become the single largest party with 21 MLAs in the 60-member Meghalaya House.

The Congress candidate Miani D Shira, a 27-year-old green horn in politics and daughter of former chief minister Dr Mukul Sangma, defeated her nearest rival from the NPP, Clement G Momin, by a margin of 3191 votes.  The Congress candidate polled 14,259 votes against 11,068 votes polled by the NPP candidate.

The NPP candidate was backed by all the constituents of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA), including the BJP, UDP, HSPDP and PDF. However, the combined efforts by the NPP-led ruling alliance did not suffice to wrest Ampati from the grip of Congress and the family of Dr Mukul Sangma, the incumbent Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader in Meghalaya Assembly.

The by-election to Ampati Assembly constituency in Garo Hills was held on May 28. The constituency is considered a citadel of the Congress given that former chief minister and the incumbent Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Dr Mukul Sangma had been representing the constituency for the last 25 years consecutively.  Mukul Sangma had won from Ampati for the sixth time on   February 27 Assembly polls, but later vacated the seat as he had won from Songsak constituency too.

The BJP, which had fielded its candidate in February 27 Assembly polls from Ampati, decided to support the NPP candidate as did by other MDA constituents as they knew that it would be difficult to defeat Congress in the fiefdom of Mukul Sangma. The ruling alliance resorted to a high-voltage campaign in the run up to the by-election, but in vain as it was not sufficient to defeat the young daughter of Mukul Sangma, who had nurtured the constituency well during the last 25 years. The Congress had remained confident in the run up to the by-poll as it believed that the people of Ampati would show their gratitude to Mukul Sangma by voting for his daughter.