Unseating of incumbent MPs alters Meghalaya’s politics

SHILLONG: With the electorate overwhelmingly opting to vote for opposition candidates and unseating the incumbent MPs in Meghalaya, the political equations have clearly changed after the Lok Sabha elections.
None of the candidates of the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), including three-time Tura MP Agatha Sangma, who is the younger sister of CM Conrad Sangma and state cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh, who was fielded by the party to contest for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat were successful.
BJP, which, with two MLAs is part of the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) govt had not fielded its own candidates and had instead extended support to NPP, which is a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
However, both the newly elected MPs from Meghalaya — Saleng Sangma of Congress from Tura (ST) seat and Ricky Andrew J Syngkon of the Voice of the People Party (VPP) from the Shillong (ST) seat — would be sitting in the opposition benches in the 18th Lok Sabha.
“We will sit in the opposition in the Lok Sabha. But we are ready to give issue-based support to the INDIA bloc whenever it is needed,” VPP president and sitting member of the Meghalaya assembly, Ardent M Basaiawmoit, has declared even as he asserted that his party was firmly committed to the ideals of secularism and, therefore, would not be part of the BJP-led NDA.
Ricky Andrew J Syngkon of the VPP won the Lok Sabha elections from Shillong by trouncing sitting MP Vincent Pala of Congress, while Saleng Sangma, who is also a sitting MLA from the Gambegre assembly constituency in the Garo Hills, defeated sitting Tura MP Agatha Sangma of NPP by an overwhelming majority.