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A CORRESPONDENT
The counting will start from 8 am wherein postal ballots will be counted first, followed by the EVMs. Elaborate arrangements have been made for the counting of votes in South Tura and Ranikor constituencies.
While the counting of votes for South Tura seat will be held at Social Mobilization Experimentation and Learning Centre in Tura, for Ranikor, votes will be counted at DC’s office in Mawkyrwat, the headquarters of South West Khasi Hills. There is also tight security arrangements out of the eight companies of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) requisitioned for the simultaneous by-polls two have been retained by the Election Department one for each constituency. Also, there will be micro observers on the counting day.
The bypoll results will have a major impact on Meghalaya’s political scenario and the state’s two major parties, the National People’s Party (NPP) and the Congress. Following the Assembly polls in February, the NPP had stitched an alliance with the UDP, PDF, HSPDP, BJP, NCP and Independents to form the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government while the Congress had to be content sitting in the Opposition although it had emerged as the single largest party after the polls.
The Meghalaya Assembly is a 60-member House but its present effective strength is 58. The opposition Congress, with 20 MLAs, is the single largest party while the NPP has 19 legislators. The break-up of seats of the other MDA partners are United Democratic Party (UDP) with seven seats which include one associate member, the People’s Democratic Front (PDF) has four MLAs, the Hill state People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) and the BJP has two legislators each, one NCP MLA and also two independents are in the coalition. The lone Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) MLA, Adelbert Nongrum is neither with the ruling nor in the opposition.