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Khonglam a doctor-turned-politician

A doctor-turned-politician, low-profile Flinder Anderson Khonglam, who was sworn in as the Meghalaya chief minister on Saturday night, has the formidable reputation of being a giant killer.

Khonglam as a candidate of the Hill State Peoples Democratic Party humbled veteran leader S P Swer of the All Party Hill Leaders Conference from the Sohra seat in 1983 to become the industries and health minister in the cabinet of Captain Williamson Sangma.

Khonglam, who was born on February 6, 1945 at Sohra in Cherapunjee, joined politics in 1977 after returning to Meghalaya from a three-year stint as a professional in a remote village in the then North Eastern Frontier Agency.

The next year he contested the Sohra assembly seat, but lost the election.

Khonglam, who did his MBBS from the Assam Medical College, joined the Congress in 1988. But he resigned from the party one year later when he was denied a ticket to contest the election to the Khasi Hill Autonomous District Council. He contested the election as an independent and won.

In the 1993 assembly election, Khonglam won the Sohra seat as an independent and became the excise minister in the Salseng Marak government.

In the 1998 assembly election he retained the seat as an independent and bagged the animal and veterinary ministry in the B B Lyngdoh cabinet.

He became an associate member in the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999 after the Congress split.

PTI

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