Former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Agitok Sangma was arguably the primary chief from the eight-State northeast with a pan-India enchantment. His son Conrad Kongkal Sangma did turn into a parliamentarian in 2016 after profitable the Tura Lok Sabha seat, which his father held from 1997 till his demise, with two breaks in between. But he was fast in assessing his strengths and centered on making the National People’s Party (NPP) a drive to reckon with within the northeast by way of an “alliance of convenience” with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which his father had initiated. Successful electoral strikes and enlargement of the occasion’s footprint within the area helped Mr. Conrad emerge from the shadows of his father.
Expanding base
The NPP received solely two seats within the 2013 Meghalaya election, contested underneath Purno Sangma’s management. Taking over because the NPP president after his father’s demise in March 2016, the onus was on Conrad Sangma to develop the occasion’s base past his dwelling turf — the western half of Meghalaya comprising the Garo Hills.
The 2017 Manipur election gave him the chance to check the waters and take the NPP’s friendship with the BJP ahead. The NPP received 4 of the 20 seats it contested and helped the BJP, which had received 10 seats fewer than the bulk mark of 31, kind a coalition authorities headed by Nongthombam Biren Singh. Under his stewardship, the occasion additionally received 5 seats within the 2019 Arunachal Pradesh election and backed the BJP authorities headed by Pema Khandu.
The Manipur experiment paid dividends after a hung verdict within the 2018 Meghalaya election. The BJP was amongst 4 events that aligned with the NPP to cease the Congress, the single-largest occasion with 21 seats, from forming the federal government. Mr. Conrad’s first time period because the Chief Minister was not all the time clean. He weathered bursts of violence over an unresolved battle between Dalit Sikhs and the native individuals within the State capital Shillong, communal tensions triggered by protests towards the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, a public outcry after the killing of a former extremist and miscreants attacking pedestrians throughout a rally demanding jobs. He managed to tide over accusations of large-scale corruption in energy, training and different sectors, apart from sitting over unlawful coal mining and transportation.
Full-term CM
However, he pulled off one thing deemed tough in a State used to fractured mandates and President’s Rule — finishing a time period. He additionally defied naysayers to not solely take cost for the second successive time period but additionally assist the NPP enhance its tally from 19 5 years in the past to 26 this 12 months.
After the election outcomes, the BJP and the opposite allies-turned-rivals misplaced no time in rekindling the friendship for the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance 2.0, although the Congress and the Trinamool Congress made an unsuccessful bid to kind another authorities with regional events.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with newly sworn-in Chief Minister Conrad Sangma look on, at a ceremony in Shillong on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
Mr. Conrad, an MBA who studied on the Wharton School of Business in Pennsylvania and the Imperial College within the U.Okay., learnt the political ropes as his father’s marketing campaign supervisor within the Nineties. But his electoral journey started with a failure — he misplaced his first Assembly election in 2004 by 182 votes. The loss, these near him say, primed him for a calculated strategy to elections by weighing his choices and perfecting the artwork of balancing between the curiosity of the NPP and that of allies, primarily the BJP.
The balancing act noticed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah attend his swearing-in ceremony days after calling Meghalaya probably the most corrupt States, in the course of the BJP’s marketing campaign. Mr. Conrad has additionally honed the talent of attacking the BJP with out going overboard and taking a backseat on sure events.
Maintaining a stability has additionally seen him turn into extra acceptable throughout the Khasi and Jaintia Hills — the 2 areas of Meghalaya temperamentally totally different from the Garo Hills — and make time for holidaying together with his physician spouse and two daughters sometimes.
