SANGMA VS SANGMA
With the Meghalaya assembly elections slated forFebruary 27, battle lines are drawn between the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) and the emerging force, Trinamool Congress (TMC). On the face of it, it’s a rehash of the 2018 election, when the two most prominent Sangmas of the state, Chief Minister Conrad and his predecessor Mukul, were locked in fierce political combat. This time too, the two Garo leaders are the prime adversaries, though Mukul Sangma, then a Congress leader, is contesting the poll under Mamata Banerjee-led TMC’s banner.
In fact, it has taken the shape of an all-out turf war between the two Sangma families. Apart from Conrad, his brother James, a minister in his cabinet, is also contesting the polls. Sister Agatha remains the Lok Sabha MP from Tura. Conrad’s uncle Thomas Sangma, his brother-in-law Sanjay Sangma, cousin Ian Botham Sangma, and Agatha’s brother-in-law Chireng Peter Marak, are also contesting as NPP candidates. From Mukul’s family, his wife Dikkanchi Shira, daughter Miani Shira, brother Zenith Sangma and Zenith’s wife Sadhiyarani Sangma are incumbent MLAs who are in the fray again.
What distinguishes the battle this time is that both chief ministerial aspirants face a challenge not just from each other but from probable allies whom they may need to form the government if there is a hung assembly like last time. The United Democratic Party (UDP), an ally of the Conrad Sangma-led incumbent government, has already spoken about having a Khasi CM. In 2018, the NPP won 19 seats and formed the government with the support of the UDP (8), Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP, 2), People’s Democratic Front (PDF, 4) and BJP (2), along with an independent. This time all these parties are contesting independently and some political leaders, particularly from Khasi areas, have raised the issue of the dominance of Garo leaders in state politics.
Process T. Sawkmie, a UDP candidate, categorically said on February 11 that Khasis need a chief minister from their community. He pointed out how development work under two consecutive Garo CMs in the last 13 years shifted mostly to Garo Hills. “The international standard stadium was expected to come up in Shillong, but was taken to Tura. Even the first state university will be set up in Tura,” he said.
Meghalaya has three major tribal groups—Khasi, Jaintia and Garo—each resident on eponymous hills. The Khasis are the largest group, accounting for 70 per cent of the population. The Khasi and Jaintia communities have similar linguistic and cultural traits while the Garos are distinct from the two. The Garo Hills have 24 assembly seats, the rest are in the Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills. Since 1972, when Meghalaya was carved out of Assam, it has had 12 chief ministers; seven were from the Khasi community. But the longest running CMs have been from the Garo tribe, including stalwarts like Williamson A. Sangma and Conrad’s father, P.A. Sangma. The last Khasi CM was D.D. Lapang, who made way for his then deputy Mukul in 2010.
For both Conrad and Mukul, the challenge is not just to dominate over the other in the 24 Garo Hill seats but to fight the perception of Garo dominance among the Khasis and Jaintias. Other Meghalaya parties, particularly those originating in Khasi Hills, hope to cash in on this sentiment. Beyond the accusation of Garo bias that he shares with Conrad, Mukul faces another identity crisis. The TMC is viewed by indigenous tribes as a “Bengali party”. The state has witnessed violent clashes between tribals and Bengalis in the past. Mukul’s supporters, though, say the former CM’s
CONRAD AND MUKUL SANGMA BOTH HAVE TO FIGHT THE PERCEPTION OF GARO BIAS AMONG KHASIS, JAINTIAS
personal popularity is enough to neutralise such perception as Meghalaya mostly votes for candidates, not on party lines.
That, precisely, is the reason why it has been an open season for defectors. Even the TMC’s emergence as the principal opposition party happened overnight in November 2021 when Mukul and 11 other Congress MLAs joined it. Since then, nearly two dozen Meghalaya MLAs have quit their parties. The BJP, which won only two seats in 2018, is hoping for a two-digit tally by fielding turncoats. In fact, the two current MLAs of BJP, Sanbor Shullai and Alexander Laloo Hek, have won on tickets of other parties in the past— Shullai on an NCP ticket and Hek from the Congress.
Both Conrad and Mukul face challenges in their own constituencies. According to a conspiracy theory, the BJP, which played kingmaker last time by ensuring that smaller parties sided with the NPP, doesn’t want Conrad to be in the saddle given his ambition to make NPP a pan-Northeast party and his adverse stand on issues such as CAA and AFSPA. If Conrad requires the BJP’s services again, the latter may fuel the demand for a nonGaro CM from a smaller party, which may tighten its grip on the government. Such theories got further credence as PM Narendra Modi took the battle to his former ally by addressing a rally on February 18 in Tura, the bastion of Conrad.
Mukul is contesting from two seats—Songsak and Tikrikilla—prompting his detractors to say he is not confident of a victory. In Songsak, he faces two-time MLA Nihim Shira of NPP, whom he had defeated by a small margin of less than 2,000 votes in 2018. But Tikrikilla is the more embarrassing contest. The sitting MLA, Jimmy Sangma, who had switched from Congress to TMC along with Mukul, is now contesting as an NPP candidate, making it a prestige battle. In any event, the results that come in on March 2 are likely to be just a passing milestone in a story of rivalries: between two Sangmas and a larger inter-ethnic one. ■