By IANS,
Shillong : Former Lok Sabha speaker Purno A. Sangma Thursday suffered a major blow when his National People’s Party (NPP) won only two of the 32 seats it contested in Meghalaya.
The ruling Congress has almost wiped out the NPP in Sangma’s strongholds in five districts of Garo Hills, from where he was elected nine times to parliament.
In 2008, Sangma ensured victory to 13 candidates of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), of which he was then a member.
His son Conrad K. Sangma, the leader of the opposition, lost to Congress candidate Clement Marak in Selsella by a huge margin.
Sangma, who founded his tribal-centric NPP after losing the presidential election to Pranab Mukherjee last year, saw his eldest son James and Nihim D. Shira winning the polls.
Former NCP Rajya Sabha member Thomas A. Sangma, who resigned from the Rajya Sabha and contested the North Tura seat, lost to Congress candidate Noverfield R. Marak.
Sangma quit NCP, which he founded in 1999 along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar after breaking away from the Congress, after his party refused to back his presidential candidature.