UDP candidate wins in Meghalaya Assembly bypoll
Shillong (IANS) | United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate Sinshar Kupar Roy Lyngdoh Thabah on Saturday won the Sohyeong assembly seat in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district by defeating his nearest rival Samlin Malangiang of the National People’s Party (NPP) by a margin of 3,422 votes. In the Six Corner contest, Thabah got 16,679 votes while Malangiang got 13,257 votes. Congress candidate S. Osborne Kharjana and BJP’s Seraf Eric Kharbuki got 1,762 and 40 votes respectively, while NOTA (none of them) got 272 votes.
Elections to the 60-member Meghalaya Legislative Assembly were held on 27 February, but the voting was not held in Sohyeong due to the death of UDP candidate H. Donkupar Roy Lyngdoh.
About 92 per cent of the 34,783 voters had cast their votes in the by-election held on 10 May.
In the 27 February elections, the UDP won 11 seats in the 60-member Meghalaya Legislative Assembly (59 seats went to polls) and after the results were announced, the tribal-based party became an ally of the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government.
The UDP, NPP and BJP, which contested the elections against each other in February, are now allies in the MDA government, headed by Chief Minister Konrad K. Sangma, who is also the National President of NPP.
–IANS
