Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma’s NPP wins 2 seats , leads in 21, show per latest trends

Shillong (Meghalaya) [India], March 2 (ANI): The ruling National People’s Party (NPP) won two seats in Meghalaya and was leading in 21, as per the latest counting trends shared by the Election Commission (EC) at 12.40pm on Thursday.

According to data shared by the EC, the National People’s Party candidate from Raliang, Coming One Ymbon, defeated BJP’s Lakhon Biam by a margin of 5,337 votes.

Further, the NPP candidate from Nartiang, Sniawbhalang Dhar, defeated Congress candidate Emlang Laloo by a narrow margin of 2123 votes.

While the majority mark in Meghalaya is 31, the NPP was emerging as the single largest party after initial rounds of counting.

NPP chief and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma was leading the BJP’s Bernard N Marak by a margin of 2830 votes in South Tura constituency.

TMC and BJP were leading in 5 seats each, the United Democratic Party was ahead in 9 seats and the Congress leading was ahead in 4 seats. The current trends were for 57 out of 59 Assembly constituencies of the state.

The counting in all 13 centres commenced at 8 am. The postal ballots were counted for the first 30 minutes followed by the counting of polled votes in the EVM Control Units.

Shillong has the States maximum number of 14 Counting Halls, one each for each assembly constituency.

West Garo Hills District Counting Centre caters to 11 assembly constituencies and is the second-largest counting centre in the state.

Election Commission has deployed 27 Counting Observers and over 500 micro observers are assisting the Counting Observers at each table.

Ahead of the counting of votes for Meghalaya assembly polls, Meghalaya Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) chief Conrad Sangma met Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati on Tuesday night. Notably, Sarma is the convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).

A top source of NPP told ANI that both Chief Ministers took part in a crucial meeting in a hotel in Guwahati and the meeting lasted for half an hour.

Following the meeting, the Meghalaya Chief Minister returned to Tura in West Garo Hills.

Earlier on Tuesday, Meghalaya CM hinted at forming a post-poll alliance to form the government.

Each table has a counting Observer assisted by four counting assistants.

Meghalaya recorded a voting percentage of over 76 per cent on Monday.

Polling was held at 3,419 polling stations across 59 Assembly constituencies in the state.

Of the 60 Assembly constituencies in Meghalaya, 36 constituencies fall in Khasi, Jaintia Hills region while 24 are in Garo Hills region.

However, polling for the Sohiong Assembly constituency was postponed following the demise of the state’s former Home Minister and United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate from the seat HDR Lyngdoh.