P. A. Sangma


Purno Agitok Sangma was an Indian politician who served as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998 and Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990.

Career

In 1973, Sangma became Vice-President of the Pradesh Youth Congress in Meghalaya and became the General Secretary of the party in 1975. He served in that position from 1975 to 1980.
In 1977, he was elected to the 6th Lok Sabha from Tura in Meghalaya and was re-elected from the same constituency multiple times. He represented the Tura constituency in multiple Lok Sabha sessions - from the sixth Lok Sabha session to the eight Lok Sabha session. He did not contest re-election at the time of the formation of the 9th Lok Sabha but did regain his seat in 1991 at the commencement of the 10th Lok Sabha. He remained a member of the Lok Sabha till 2008. He became Speaker of Lok Sabha in 1996.

Chief Minister of Meghalaya

He was the Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990.

Formation of Nationalist Congress Party

Sangma was expelled from the Congress on 20 May 1999, along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar, for raising the banner of revolt against Sonia Gandhi over the fact that she was a foreign-born citizen. Sangma along with Pawar and Anwar wanted a native-born citizen to be projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate. After his departure from the Congress Party, he was one of the founders of the Nationalist Congress Party along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar in 1999. In January 2004, P.A. Sangma created a split in the NCP after Sharad Pawar became close to the NCP's former rival, Sonia Gandhi. After losing a battle for the NCP election symbol, Sangma later merged his faction with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, forming the Nationalist Trinamool Congress. He resigned from his Lok Sabha seat on 10 October 2005 as a member of AITMC/TMC, and was re-elected as an NCP candidate in February 2006.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Sangma was one of two NTC MPs elected. He resigned from the 14th Lok Sabha in March 2008 to take part in the 2008 Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election.
On 5 January 2013, Sangma launched the National People's Party on the national level. The National People's Party managed to win two seats in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly in the 2013 Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election.

Presidential election

Sangma's candidature was proposed by AIADMK and BJD, and later, supported by BJP as well. Sangma resigned from the NCP on 20 June 2012 after opposition from Sharad Pawar over his presidential candidature. Former Union Minister and a Congress tribal leader Arvind Netam also came out strongly in favour of the candidature of Sangma for the presidential post.
On 22 July 2012, Pranab Mukherjee was declared the victor over P. A. Sangma, crossing the half-way mark of 525,140 votes after votes in half the states had been tallied. While securing the required quota, Mukherjee secured 558,194 votes to Sangma's 239,966. After the final results were published, Mukherjee secured 7,13,424 value of votes, while P. A. Sangma secured 3,17,032 values of votes. The Returning Officer for the Election, and the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha, Vivek Agnihotri, then declared Mukherjee to be elected as President of India. Sangma subsequently accused the President-elect of graft.
MPsMLAsTotal
Pranab Mukherjee373,116340,647713,763
P. A. Sangma145,848170,139315,987

Personal life

Sangma was born on 1 September 1947 in Chapahati, a village in the erstwhile Garo Hills district of Assam, to Dipchon Ch. Marak and Chimri A. Sangma as one of their seven children. He lost his father when he was 11 and had to quit studies due to poverty. He was helped to return to school by a Salesian Father Giovanni Battista Busolin. Later, he obtained a bachelor of arts degree from St. Anthony's College in Shillong before shifting to Dibrugarh in Assam, where he taught in the Don Bosco High School while pursuing master of arts in international politics from Dibrugarh University.
Sangma married Soradini K. in 1973. They had two sons and two daughters together. Son Conrad was appointed as National President of Nationalist Youth Congress and daughter Agatha are politicians. Agatha was elected from Tura to the 15th Lok Sabha elections in 2009, and at 29, was the youngest minister in the UPA ministry.

Death

On the morning of 4 March 2016, Sangma died from cardiac arrest in New Delhi. He was aged 68.
He was awarded a posthumous Padma Vibhushan in 2017 becoming the first recipient of Padma Vibhushan from Meghalaya.

Positions held

President, Indian Parliamentary Group, National Group of Inter-Parliamentary Union; and India Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association