Report : Odisha News 24 Byuro //
Shillong, (07/03) : Conrad K Sangma, who was sworn-in on Tuesday for a second term as the chief minister of Meghalaya, has come a long way, emerging from the shadows of his better-known father Purno Agitok Sangma, as a consummate politician in his own right.
Sometime before elections were announced, Conrad realised two things – firstly the powerful Congress which had bested him in the last elections, had been reduced to a rump by the unexpected defection of former CM Mukul Sangma.
Secondly, despite Mukul Sangma’s personal charisma, people in the hills of Meghalaya remained suspicious of new parties such as the Trinamool Congress and of leaders they did not know too well, coming in from outside the state and campaigning.
Party associates say this gave him the hope and a strategy for retaining power despite anti-incumbency and various allegations of corruption levelled by his opponents against his government.
He shrugged off the tie-up with BJP, which too seems to have been viewed largely as a party of outsiders by people in Meghalaya, even though his party remained part of the NDA and went into the electoral battle alone.
His shrewd calculation was proven right. By focusing on a campaign which stressed on the local roots of his party, he managed to win 26 seats as against 19 in the last election and improved his vote share from less than 21 per cent to over 31 per cent.