Dream comes true for Dr Donkupar Roy

Shillong, Mar 19 (UNI) After having served as Deputy Chief Minister in the last Congress-led government, five-times MLA from Shella constituency Dr Donkupar Roy (Dkhar) has eventually realised his political ambition to be the Meghalaya Chief Minister.

The soft-spoken economist joined active politics in 1988 after being conferred with Doctorate in Economics from the prestigious North Eastern Hills University here.

He was elected from Shella constituency, bordering Bangladesh, as an Independent MLA in 1988 with the ardent support of the then Alliance Reconstruction of Meghalaya State, a political body of the Khasi Students' Union.

Since then, Dr Roy has never lost an electoral battle from Shella seat, which is around 60 km from Sohra constituency (Cherrapunjee), the place receiving the highest rainfall on earth.

In 1989, he was first appointed as Minister of State in the B B Lyngdoh Ministry and served in various capacities in the state.

In 1993, Dr Roy again contested the Assembly elections as an Independent candidate and outsmarted his political rivals. Dr Roy was also one of the MLAs who was disqualified by Speaker P R Kyndiah in 1991 during the Congress toppling game. The Supreme Court, however, had set aside the ruling of the Speaker.

Ahead of the 1998 Assembly elections, Dr Roy joined the newly formed regional United Democratic Party (UDP), contested and won the Assembly elections for the third consecutive term and became a Cabinet Minister in the Congress, UDP and NCP-led government.

In 2003, he was unanimously elected as the UDP president and won a berth in the seventh Meghalaya Legislative Assembly. He was inducted in the Lapang-led ministry as Deputy Chief Minister in-charge of Finance and other portfolios.

Dr Roy's childhood ambition to become chief minister took shape soon after Meghalaya presented a fractured mandate and the NCP projected him as the Chief Ministerial candidate of the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) to lead a non-Congress government in the state.

The MPA is a conglomerate of the NCP(14), United Democratic Party(11), Hill State Peoples Democratic Party(2), two Independents and one each from the BJP and the Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement.

Prior to joining active politics, the newly inducted chief minister completed his early education in Ramkrishna Mission Primary School in his native village and then proceeded to Sohra to complete his secondary schooling.

Being a bright student, he joined St Anthony's College and took Economics as his specialised subject and went ahead to complete his PhD from North Eastern Hills University.

He was also the founding president of the Border Youth and Students' Union.

Armed with a Doctorate in Economics, he began his career as a lecturer at Synod College for a short period before he got attracted to active politics.

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