Former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma dies
PA Sangma, the former Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998, passed away in Delhi after a brief illness. In a show of respect, the Lok Sabha has been adjourned till March 8. Lok Sabha's present Speaker Sumitra Mahajan mourned the death of Sangma and said how she had "learnt how to run Lok Sabha with a smile from him".
In 1974, P A Sangma became the General Secretary of the Meghalaya Pradesh Youth Congress. In the 6th General Elections, he was elected from the Tura constituency to the Lok Sabha. In 1980, Sangma became the Joint Secretary of the All India Congress Committee. In 1980, he was inducted into the Union Cabinet as the Deputy Minister in charge of Industry.
PA Sangma was elected the Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990.
On 23 May 1996, P A Sangma was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the 11th Lok Sabha. He won with the total support cutting across all political parties. From May 1996 to March 1998, he remained in the office of Speaker. In 50 years of Indian parliamentary history, he was the 1st member of the Opposition to hold the office of the Speaker.
PA Sangma was elected 9 times from the Tura constituency in 1977, 1980, 1984, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 (Indian National Congress), 2004 (All India Trinamool Congress) and 2014 (National People's Party).
PA Sangma was expelled from the Congress along with Tariq Anwar and Sharad Pawar on 20 May 1999. The trio had raised the banner of revolt against Sonia Gandhi over her foreign descent issue. After his expulsion from the Congress Party, in 1999 PA Sangma founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar.
In January 2004, Sangma created a fissure in the NCP. Sangma lost the fight for the NCP election symbol and later merged his party with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, forming the Nationalist Trinamool Congress. On 10 October 2005, he resigned from his Lok Sabha seat as a member of All India Trinamool Congress, and was re-elected in February 2006 as NCP candidate.
In 2013, Sangma unsuccessfully challenged Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential elections. Mukherjee defeated Sangma by almost 3 lakh votes
