Tura: The Garo Hills region of western Meghalaya, which has 24 assembly seats, is represented by two Sangams – Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) chief Conrad K. Sangma and his predecessor Mukul M. Sangma of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) – and their families. BJP and Congress, Staring at Garo Hills Pai, Some lesser known Sangmas are also gearing up for the electoral battle.
this time 59 after assembly seats death of a candidate, Go to the polls on Monday and the votes will be counted on Thursday.
Fighting has been more intense in the Garo Hills than in the eastern part of the state, extending to Khasi and Jaintia. Hills. Reason: The The party that wins the most seats in the Garo Hills has often formed the government, with the chief minister being from the matrilineal Garo community.
To a large extent, Conrad is living up to the legacy of his father, former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Agitoke Sangma. He is confident, but also somewhat worried about the possible outcome. He is contesting from South Tura.
We are confident that people will elect us again and this time our numbers will be more. We will have a better mandate. We have always adopted a humble and focused approach, never taking things lightly and more importantly never taking an opponent lightly. Hopefully, it should be good,” CM Sangma told ThePrint after addressing an election rally in North Garo Hills on Wednesday.
She states that her father’s ideology is the driving force behind her efforts, although the thought of “not letting him down” is sometimes worrisome.
“It’s the principles I learned from my father that keep me going. But as a human being, I worry too – if I disappoint her. I do not allow this to affect my sense of purpose for which I am here,” said the Chief Minister.
On the other hand, Mukul M. Sangma, who was the Chief Minister of Meghalaya for almost eight years till 2018, is relying on his experience and appeals to Conrad to step down. Once the face of the Congress in Meghalaya, he joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in November 2021 along with 11 other Congress MLAs. He is contesting from two seats , Songsak in East Garo Hills and Tikrikila in West Garo Hills.
Congress had won 21 seats 2018 Assembly Elections While NPP won only 19. But with the support of six other parties, including the BJP, which could only manage two seats, the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government was formed.
In the final leg of the NPP campaign in the vote-rich rural bastions of Garo Hills, Konrad attacked Mukul, calling him a “dictatorial leader” representing the “party from outside the state”.
“Mukul Sangma left the Congress because he felt there was no future there, but he failed to calculate that the people of Garo Hills would never accept an outside party when they had the option of choosing a party from their own state. would be an option.” According to a press release issued by the NPP, Konrad said while addressing a rally in Dadengre on Thursday.
Speaking to ThePrint in Shillong earlier this week, Mukul, who is also a doctor, retorted that: “When you are thinking of statehood, you are talking of forming a government to take care of the needs of the people, not just their respective constituencies to elect a representative in Should I be as self-centered and narrow-minded as the frog in the well?
“There is a burning desire, a thirst for change. The state has never been hurt the way it had to go through. Corruption has crippled the state and drained the coffers. Those in power has looted people to satisfy its growing greed,” said the former CM.
Konrad recalled how he had seen more than 30 elections – he has been campaigning since the age of 12. “Every Nook and Corner of the Northeast” with his father. “We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and we have been through a lot. I have faced some difficult situations in the past where our politics was not as stable as it could have been. But after going through all these things, we are now are here.
Voters are dissatisfied with both the Sangams
In Garo Hills, people mainly talked about roads, health facilities and education.
People from 39-Resubelpara and 38-Mendipathar constituencies of North Garo Hills board pick-up trucks heading to The NPP holds rallies on Wednesday afternoons. Some traveled 14-15 km on cycles and motorcycles to catch a glimpse of Konrad. The chief minister campaigned for Timothy D’Shira in Resubelpara and Marthon Sangma in Mendipathar.
There are about 1.35 lakh voters in the four constituencies of North Garo Hills, of which 29,197 are from Mendipathar and 39,387 from Resubalpara.
People from around five villages of Resubelpara with Garo and Rabha population participated in the public rally at Darampara ground.
Sangma, 28, of Cricklen said people in both the constituencies are “not quite satisfied” with the work of the government – present or former.
“The road with Daram was repaired in 2021 Dekachang Bridge The work on river damming has not been completed for the last 10 years,” he said.
“He said that the Damra-Bajengdoba road construction would be completed in 2025. We don’t know when it will happen. Roads are much better in the border villages of Assam. We have a primary health center at Resubelpara. For good treatment, we have to go to Goalpara Civil Hospital in Assam,” said 28-year-old Rajeev Rabha.
Resubalpara is located at a distance of 136.1 km from Guwahati, 39 km from Goalpara in Assam and 82 km from Tura in West Garo Hills.
Referring to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Baldwin Marak, 55, said he once applied Under the government scheme for the construction of household toilets, but there is not even one yet. Not even Rajeev Rabha.
“Around 2018-19 there was a proposal to build around 12,000 toilets – some are yet to be received. We applied once, but the officials said that they have not received funds from the central government. I made mine out of bamboo,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin and his friend Vincent Momin, 35, are daily wage laborers from Resubalpara. He was critical of both the Sangams chosen to form the government.
“Mukul Sangma is also the same. Both didn’t work for us,” said Vincent.
Besides the sanitation problem, the villagers of Resubelpara and Mendipathar said they sometimes find it difficult to draw water from the well as houses are not connected with piped drinking water under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
“We are not connected through the Jal Jeevan Mission as this is considered an urban area,” said 63-year-old Admeral Marak, vice-chairman of Mendipathar block.
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For the love of PA Sangma
In the last town of Mendipathar in North Garo Hills, Nirendra Momin, 77, and Donald Sangma, 65, said they needed good roads and drinking water facilities for at least 67 households in their area. Momin said that he had got the toilet built in 2020 under a government scheme.
Two senior citizens of Mendipathar, along with 60-year-old Mening Marak of Resubalpara, said they were supporting Konrad because their father described him as “a good man and father of the Garo community, who kept his promises.”
In Resubalpara, Baldwin said he had grievances against the government, but was only attending the rally because of his praise for PA Sangma.
“We feel strongly connected to him. Although Konrad is not like his father.”
While Konrad attended separate meetings in the two constituencies where people gathered to pray for his party before going on stage, a TMC rally at Rajabala in West Garo Hills on the same day was attended by thousands of people. ran away. It was presided over by party chief Mamata Banerjee and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The rally is said to have boosted confidence TMC in the steppe belt He Muslims form the largest segment of the electorate across the state. Mukul reportedly took a strategic decision to contest from Tikrikila, apart from Songsak in East Garo Hills district. It is expected to influence minority-led constituencies to support TMC.
‘Mukul should not have left the Congress’
Congress supporters fiercely attacked Mukul in Gambegre village, about 16 km from Tura in West Garo Hills.
“TMC is a party outside Meghalaya. We don’t know why Mukul Sangma joined it, but we don’t consider it a local party,’ said 42-year-old Withersen Momin.
Along with Withersen, Thalinga M Sangma (37), Phagan M Sangma (63), Pribinath Marak (53) and Starson Marak (48) also decided not to attend Mukul’s rally at Gambegre on Wednesday.
Momin remarked, “He (Mukul) would have become the next chief minister, if he had stayed with the Congress.”
Seven candidates are in the fray from Gambegre assembly constituency with 31,436 registered voters. Before the elections, Gambegre MLA Saleng A Sangma switched from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to Congress. The NCP is one of the six political parties supporting the NPP-led MDA government.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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