SHILLONG, AUG 27: In a major boost to the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA), the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) and the United Democratic Party (UDP) today won the twin bye-elections to the South Tura and Ranikor Assembly constituencies.
Chief Minister and NPP national president Conrad K Sangma won and retained the South Tura seat by a huge margin of over 8,400 votes while UDP candidate Pius Marwein won the Ranikor bye-election by a margin of nearly 3,000 votes.
Conrad defeated his closest rival from the opposition Congress Charlotte W Momin by 8,421 votes when he secured 13,656 of 22,000 plus voters of the constituency. Momin however got only 5235 votes.
On the other hand, Pius now known to be a giant killer defeated former five-time legislator Martin M Danggo of the NPP by 2896 votes. He secured 13183 while Danggo with only 10287 votes.
It may be mentioned here that Danggo had earlier defeated Pius by a margin of 2002 votes in the February 27-Assembly polls held this year.
The bye-elections held on August 23, were necessitated following the resignations of Danggo as Ranikor MLA and Agatha K Sangma as South Tura MLA on June 21 and July 2 respectively.
Danggo’s resignation was also after the MDA government’s decision to upgrade Ranikor Administrative Unit into a full fledged civil sub-division which was inaugurated on July 10.
With today’s win, the ruling NPP has equalled its strength with the opposition Congress by increasing its seat from 19 to 20 in the 60-member House while UDP, which is the main ally of the MDA, has increased the number of its seats from 6 to 7.
The six-party MDA-led by the NPP has also increased its tally from 37 to 38. The other coalition partners include Hill State People Democratic Party (2), People’s Democratic Front (4), Bharatiya Janata Party (2) and Nationalist Congress Party (1) and 3 Independents.
On the other hand, former South Tura MLA John Leslee A Sangma who was defeated by Agatha in the February 27-Assembly polls held this year, could secured only 2211 votes while an Independent candidate Chris Kabul A Sangma with 897 votes.
However, it was another setback former Mawsynram legislator and chairman of the People’s Democratic Front (PDF) Pynshngain N Syiem when he came third by securing only 1978 votes in the Ranikor bye-election.
The opposition Congress also failed to retain the Ranikor seat which was its bastion when its candidate Jackiush Sangma got only 938 votes.
By Our Reporter
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