Tura, March 15: The opposition Congress in the Garo Hills region has gained an added weightage into their campaign for the Tura Lok Sabha seat after a former Trinamool legislator joined their ranks on Thursday in a large public meeting at Chokpot in South Garo Hills.
Lazarus M Sangma returned to a party he had left over a year ago to join the All India Trinamool Congress with devastating consequences at the poll results of 2023.He joined the Congress with his supporters in his former bastion of Chokpot and was welcomed into the grand old party by State Congress Working President Deborah C Marak and Congress Lok Sabha candidate Saleng A Sangma.
“Our campaign is gaining strength with each passing day and many opposition supporters and leaders are coming to us. People of Garo Hills are looking to the Congress in this election because they know the history and the work of our party,” said Deborah Marak to this scribe.
Lazarus M Sangma was elected from Chokpot in the 2018 state elections on a Congress ticket.
But four years later, he switched over to the Trinamool Congress along with several other Congress legislators led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
Contesting on a Trinamool Congress (AITC) ticket in 2023, he tried to retain Chokpot but faced defeat at the hands of NPP’s Sengchim N Sangma. Lazarus came a distant third.
Six out of the 8 Congress defectors to the Trinamool from Garo Hills, barring Mukul Sangma in Songsak and his daughter Miani D Shira in Ampati, lost the 2023 elections.
