Shillong, Jan 27: Conrad Kongkal Sangma is the Chief Minister of Meghalaya. In 2006 he joined the National People’s Party’s Presidency when his father was the former Chief Minister of Meghalaya and the former Speaker of the Lok Sabha P. A. Sangma.
He was one of the youngest Finance Ministers of Meghalaya. During the eighth Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, Conrad served as the NPP’s representative from the Selsella constituency withinside the West Garo Hills.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEGHALAYA CHIEF MINISTER
CONRAD KONGKAL SANGMA
Who is Conrad Sangma?
Conrad Sangma was born on January 27, 1978, in Tura, a town in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills region. His mother, Soradini, worked as a housewife, and his father, Purno Sangma, served as the former Chief Minister and Speaker of the Lok Sabha of Meghalaya.
Conrad was bought up in Delhi and attended the St. Columba’s School there for his education. He graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s in business administration in entrepreneurial management before finishing his MBA in finance at Imperial College London.
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Early entry
After completing his studies in the 1990s, he commenced his political career. He assumed the placement of Campaigns manager for his father, P. A Sangma Nationalist Congress Party. He participated in his first-ever election in 2004 and lost 182 votes. In the 2008 state elections, he and his brother James ran as NCP candidates and won seats in the State Assembly.
He later held several significant portfolios in the state cabinet, including those for finance, power, tourism, the GAD, and information technology. Within 10 days of taking office as a minister, he presented the first annual budget for Meghalaya. Sangma served as the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly’s Leader of Opposition from 2009 to 2013.
He was chosen national president of the National People’s Party (NPP) in March 2016 after the death of his father. The same year in May when running for the Lok Sabha from Tura, he won by a margin of 1.92 lakh votes, setting a new record.
At the 2018 Meghalaya legislative assembly election, Sangma’s party, the NPP, finished second to the Indian National Congress with 19 seats. Since the State needed 30 seats to form a government, the NPP partnered with other regional parties to increase that number to 34.
In the next meeting with the governor of Meghalaya, Ganga Prasad, Sangma staked his claim to form the government with a letter of support from the 34 members of the legislative assembly, including 19 from the NPP, six from the United Democratic Party, four from the People’s Democratic Front, two from the Hill State People’s Democratic Party and Bharatiya Janata Party, and an independent. He was subsequently named the Chief Minister.
