Padma Vibhushan P A Sangma

Purno Agitok Sangma served as the 4th Chief Minister of Meghalaya and the 11th Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He served as a member of the Lok Sabha from Tura, Meghalaya, and as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.  He was the founder of the National People's Party and co-founder of the Nationalist Congress Party. He contested the 2012 Indian presidential election, supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the AIADMK. However, he lost to Pranab Mukherjee of the Indian National Congress. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honor, posthumously in 2017 in the field of Public Affairs, and was the first recipient from Meghalaya.

 Sangma was born in 1947 in Chapahati, a village in the erstwhile Garo Hills district of Assam.  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 priest, Giovanni Battista Busolin. Later, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree before shifting to Dibrugarh in Assam, where he taught in the Don Bosco High School while pursuing a Master of Arts in international politics. Sangma married Soradini K. Sangma. They have two sons and two daughters together.  Conrad serves as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, and his daughter Agatha is the Member of Parliament from the Tura constituency.

 In 1973, Sangma became Vice-President of the Pradesh Youth Congress in Meghalaya and became the General Secretary of the party in 1975. In 1977, he was elected to the 6th Lok Sabha from the Tura constituency in Meghalaya and represented the same constituency multiple times. He was the Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990. He became Speaker of the Lok Sabha in 1996. Sangma was expelled from Congress in 1999  for raising the banner of revolt against Sonia Gandhi over the fact that she was a foreign-born citizen. He was one of the founders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar in 1999.  Sangma's candidature for the 2012 presidential election was proposed by the AIADMK and the Biju Janta Dal, and later, supported by the BJP.  However, Pranab Mukherjee was declared the victor over Sangma.  In January 2013, Sangma launched the National People's Party at the national level. In 2014, Sangma was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tura, but passed away mid-term in 2016.

*Collected from the public domain

*Updated on 28/08/2025