The 2018 Assembly election in the tiny state of Meghalaya was clearly a battle between two politicians sharing the same surname—Sangma—and hailing from the same place, Garo Hills.
Indeed the Garo Hills, witnessed a high voltage campaign as both Mukul Sangma, Congress leader and incumbent chief minister, and Conrad Sangma, chief of the National People’s Party (NPP), left no stone unturned to reach the goal.
Mukul (53) is in the fray in two constituencies for the first time: Ampati, his home turf in South West Garo Hills district and Songsak in East Garo Hills.
The western-educated Conrad (40), the Tura MP and son of former Lok Sabha Speaker, P.A. Sangma, is not in the fray, but he has poured in efforts to make his party, the NPP, emerge as frontrunner to be the single largest party on March 3. The party had secured just two seats in the 2013 Assembly polls.
With 67 per cent polling, a total of 18,09,818 voters will decide the fate of 361 candidates, including 31 women and many independents.
Polling in one constituency—Williamnagar—in East Garo Hills was countermanded following the killing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Jonathon Sangma in an IED blast on February 18.
Despite battling anti-incumbency and corruption charges, Chief Minister Mukul is putting up a brave face. He expressed confidence that the Congress will retain power, crossing the magic figure of 31 MLAS. The party fielded candidates in all the 60 Assembly constituencies.
“I have full faith in the people. I also believe that they have confidence only in the Congress. We will cross the magic number,” Mukul said after casting his vote on February 27. The chief architect behind the Congress winning 29 seats in the 2013 elections, Mukul has ruled Meghalaya for a total of eight years.
Asked whether the Congress has decided on potential partners in case it fell short of a majority, Mukul Sangma quipped, “We do have lot of good friends.”
The NPP is contesting 52 of the 60 seats and has the option of turning to the BJP in case of need. “We are confident of forming the government on our own. We have no alliance with the BJP. But yes, we don’t consider the party as taboo” said Conrad.
His sister, Agatha Sangma (37), a former union minister during the UPA rule, is the frontrunner to win the South Tura constituency. She too is confident that the party founded by her father will come to power in the state. “We have been very focussed in our approach, which is bound to pay dividends,” said Agatha.
A Christian majority state, the BJP is unlikely to come to power on its own. It has fielded 47 candidates this time. Although the saffron party has denied that it has any understanding with the NPP, the Congress alleges that the NPP is the 'b team' of the BJP.
“As the BJP cannot form the government on its own, it will piggyback on the NPP,” allege Congress leaders from Delhi who have extensively campaigned in the state. The BJP did not win a single seat in the last Assembly polls, with some of its candidates even losing their security deposits.
As for the Congress, months before the polls, the party had faced desertions with seven MLAs switching sides to other parties. Five of them had joined the NPP.
Criticising the BJP of engineering the defections with money power, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had remarked, “Just because they could buy some Congress MLAs with money, the BJP thinks that it can even buy the Church. Such is the arrogance of the BJP.”
Gandhi warned the people that the BJP was helping the NPP with money, so that the Congress loses the elections.
The BJP rejected the charges, saying if the party was witnessing a wave in its favour, it was because of poor governance by the Congress government led by Mukul. “People of Meghalaya are looking forward to dethrone Mukul. They want to install a pro-poor and corruption-free government,” said Dongkupur Roy, a regional party leader.
The battle seems to be a triangular fight between the Congress, the NPP and the BJP. With the latter two in cahoots with each other, a post-poll alliance could likely see a new set of leaders in power in Meghalaya.