Another ward of P A Sangma, the Nationalist Congress Party leader and a heavyweight in Meghalaya politics, has stepped into the father's shoes adding momentum to the Sangma dynasty that is on the roll in the northeastern hill state.

Twenty-eight year old Agatha K Sangma, a lawyer by profession and daughter of P A Sangma, has entered the active politics with the NCP nominating her as the party candidate for the May 22 by-election to Tura Lok Sabha seat in Garo hills, the Sangma fiefdom.

She has become the third offspring of the senior Sangma to jump into politics after her brothers Conrad Sangma and James Sangma who were elected to the Meghalaya Assembly as NCP members in the election held in March. Conrad now holds several important portfolios in the Meghalaya cabinet.

The Tura Lok Sabha seat that was represented by P A Sangma ten times, fell vacant after the NCP leader resigned from following his victory in the last Assembly election in the state. Agatha is expected to file her nomination papers on May 1 and she is sure to be supported by NCP's allies in the ruling Meghalaya Progressive Alliance.

The former Lok Sabha Speaker, Sangma said it was the party and people of Garo Hills who wanted his daughter Agatha to contest the by-election to Tura Lok Sabha seat. He dismissed allegations levelled against him by political rivals for encouraging dynastic politics saying that he had not groomed any of his five children to be his successors in politics, but rather they have chosen on their own to enter politics.

After getting her LLB degree from Pune University, Agatha joined the bar in Delhi High Court. She did her masters from Nottingham University in the UK on environmental management. She now claims to have jumped onto the political bandwagon to improve infrastructure in backward Garo Hills that was represented by her father in Lok Sabha for so many years.