Cong gains ground in Meghalaya, NCP win margin dips in Tura

Despite his daughter retaining the Tura Parliamentary seat, serious cracks appeared to surface in NCP leader PA Sangma's bastion in Meghalaya with Agatha Sangma securing a far reduced margin over her Congress rival.  

Agatha, who had won her father's seat with a convincing margin of 99,855 votes over her Congress rival in last year's by-poll, got a margin of 17,945 votes this time.  

Congress' Deborah Marak, touted by many as a loser even before she filed her nomination, said, "what makes me happy is the fact that even though I had campaigned for the party single-handedly, the campaign ensured that the winning margin of the NCP has been reduced to 17,500 while they (NCP) were confident of winning the seat on a margin of more than one lakh votes. 

This shows that the Congress is once again emerging as a strong party in Garo Hills," she said.  

Significantly, no senior NCP leader, even those from the state, had campaigned for Deborah as the NCP was confident about P A Sangma's hold in Tura.