P. A. Sangma

Purno Agitok Sangma (1 September 1947 – 4 March 2016) was an Indian politician who has served as the 4th Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990 and the 11th Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998.[1] He also served as a member of the Lok Sabha from Tura from 2014 to 2016, 1991 to 2008 and from 1977 to 1989 and the minister of 21st Information and Broadcasting in the Rao ministry from 1995 to 1996, founder of NPP and Co- founder of NCP. He was the candidate for the 2012 Indian presidential election, supported by BJP and AIADMK, however he lost to Congress politician Shri Pranab Mukherjee. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, posthumously in 2017 in the field of Public Affairs and was the first recipient of Padma Vibhushan from Meghalaya.[2][3][4]

Purno Agitok Sangma
Official portrait, 1996
11th Speaker of the Lok Sabha
In office
25 May 1996 – 23 March 1998
DeputySuraj Bhan
Preceded byShivraj Patil
Succeeded byG. M. C. Balayogi
21st Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India
In office
15 September 1995 – 16 May 1996
Prime MinisterP. V. Narasimha Rao
Preceded byKamakhya Prasad Singh Deo
(As MoS)
Succeeded bySushma Swaraj
Member of the Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office
26 May 2014 – 5 March 2016
Preceded byAgatha Sangma
Succeeded byConrad Sangma
ConstituencyTura
In office
1991–2008
Preceded bySanford Marak
Succeeded byAgatha Sangma
ConstituencyTura
In office
1977–1989
Preceded byK. R. Marak
Succeeded bySanford Marak
ConstituencyTura
4th Chief Minister of Meghalaya
In office
6 February 1988 – 25 March 1990
GovernorBhishma Narain Singh
Hari Dev Joshi
A. A. Rahim
Preceded byWilliamson A. Sangma
Succeeded byB. B. Lyngdoh
Personal details
Born
Purno Agitok Sangma

(1947-09-01)1 September 1947
Chapahati, Assam, India
(Now in Meghalaya, India)
Died4 March 2016(2016-03-04) (aged 68)
New Delhi, India
Political partyNational People's Party
(2012–2016)
Other political
affiliations		Nationalist Congress Party (1999–2004; 2005–2012)
All India Trinamool Congress (2004–2005)
Indian National Congress (before 1999)
SpouseSoradini K. (1973–2016)
Children4; including Conrad, Agatha, James
Alma materDibrugarh University

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 constituency in Meghalaya and represented the same constituency multiple times, from 1977-1988, 1991-2008, 2014-2016. The breaks in 1988 and 2008 were caused by his return to Meghalaya state politics. He became Speaker of Lok Sabha in 1996.

Chief Minister of Meghalaya

He was the Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990.[5]

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.[6] After his departure from the Congress Party, he was one of the founders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar in 1999.[7] 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 All India Trinamool Congress, forming the Nationalist Trinamool Congress.Sangma was one of two NTC MPs elected. He resigned from his Lok Sabha seat on 10 October 2005 as a member of AITC, and was re-elected as an NCP candidate in February 2006. He resigned from the 14th Lok Sabha for the second time in March 2008 to take part in the 2008 Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election.

On 5 January 2013, Sangma launched the National People's Party[8] 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. In 2014, Sangma was elected to Lok Sabha from Tura, and died mid-term in 2016.

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.[9][10][11]

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.[12][13] 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.[14]

  MPs MLAs Total
Pranab Mukherjee[15] 373,116 340,647 713,763
P. A. Sangma[15] 145,848 170,139 315,987

Personal life

Sangma was born on 1 September 1947 in Chapahati, a village in the erstwhile Garo Hills district of Assam (in present-day West Garo Hills, Meghalaya), to Dipchon Ch. Marak and Chimri A. Sangma as one of their seven children.[16] 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.[17]

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 is a politician.[18] Agatha was elected from Tura to the 15th Lok Sabha elections in 2009, and at 29, was the youngest minister in the UPA ministry.[19]

Death
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and cabinet members paying their respects at Sangma's wake

On the morning of 4 March 2016, Sangma died from cardiac arrest in New Delhi.[20] He was aged 68.

Positions held

President, (i) Indian Parliamentary Group, (ii) National Group of Inter-Parliamentary Union; and (iii) India Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

  • 1998 - Re-elected, Member of Parliament, Tura constituency, as member of Congress
  • 1998 - Member, Committee on External Affairs and its Sub-Committee-I
  • 1998 - Vice-President, Indian Institute of Public Administration
  • 1998 - Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of External Affairs
  • 1999 - Re-elected, Member of Parliament, Tura constituency, as member of NCP
  • 1999 - Member, Committee on Labour and Welfare
  • 2000 - Member, National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution
  • 2002 - Member, Committee on External Affairs
  • 2003 - Member, Committee on Home Affairs
  • 2004 - Re-elected, Member of Parliament, Tura constituency
  • 2004 - Member, Committee on External Affairs, Member, Committee on Private Members Bills and Resolutions, Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Home Affairs
  • 2006 - Re-elected to Lok Sabha as N.C.P. candidate on 23.2.2006, Tura constituency
  • 2008 - Member, Meghalaya Legislative Assembly
  • 2014 - Elected to Lok Sabha from Tura

See also

References
  1. "PA Sangma (1947-2016): The short man from Garo Hills, the tallest North East leader in New Delhi". Archived from the original on 29 July 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  2. "PA Sangma awarded Padma Vibhushan, becomes first recipient from Meghalaya". India Today. 25 January 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  3. "Sharad Pawar, Murli Manohar Joshi and P A Sangma conferred Padma awards with 36 others". The Economic Times. 30 March 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  4. "P.A. Sangma awarded Padma Vibhushan, becomes first recipient from Meghalaya". Business Standard India. 25 January 2017. Archived from the original on 11 September 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  5. "Who is P.A. Sangma?". Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  6. "CWC expels threesome for six years". Rediff.com, 20 May 1999. Archived from the original on 24 June 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  7. "National Congress Party Origins". NCP official website, retrieved 21 May 2012. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012.
  8. news.oneindia.in/2013/01/05/sangma-launches-his-party-with-alliance-with-nda-1125781.html
  9. "It's time that a tribal becomes President: Netam". 29 June 2012. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012.
  10. "Sangma withdraws himself from presidential race, seeks consensus for Abdual Kalam". Headlines today. 16 June 2012. Archived from the original on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  11. "I have quit NCP, will contest presidential polls: PA Sangma". 20 June 2012.
  12. "Pranab Mukherjee voted India's 13th President". The Times of India. 22 July 2012. Archived from the original on 17 July 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  13. "Pranab Mukherjee is 13th President". Deccan Herald. 22 July 2012. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  14. "BJP supports Sangma after division in NDA". The Times of India. 21 June 2012. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013.
  15. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 June 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Sangma, Shri Purno Agitok Biographical sketch". indiapress.org. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  17. "P A Sangma: From tending cattle for food to minding the Lok Sabha". The Indian Express. 5 March 2016. Archived from the original on 25 June 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  18. Nayak, C. K. (21 March 2016). "Unopposed Tura By-Poll Would Be Fitting Tribute To My Father". The Shillong Times. Archived from the original on 9 March 2018. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  19. "Agatha Sangma youngest minister in Manmohan ministry". The Times of India. 27 May 2009. Archived from the original on 17 November 2009. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  20. "Former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma Passes Away at 68". The Quint. 4 March 2016. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
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