Meghalaya Elections 2023 | Election campaign for Meghalaya Assembly ends, polling to be held on February 27

Shillong: The noise of campaigning for 59 seats of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly came to an end on Saturday. Polling will be held in the state on February 27 and the results will be out on March 2. “The election campaign ended at 4 pm without any law and order problem,” Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor told PTI. The Commission has made preparations for conducting free, fair and peaceful polls on 27th February. The electoral fate of a total of 369 candidates is at stake.

He informed that voters will exercise their franchise at a total of 3,419 polling stations, out of which 640 polling stations have been identified as sensitive, 323 polling stations as highly sensitive and 84 polling stations as high risk. He informed that 119 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been deployed across the state for the elections.

Kharkongor informed that 53 observers, including 20 general observers, 21 expenditure observers and 12 police observers, have been deployed to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections. Adequate security arrangements have been made and the 443-km border with Bangladesh has been sealed so that law and order problems do not arise, a senior police officer said. Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP) is seeking a second term, while the Trinamool Congress, led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, is going all out to win the assembly elections.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have campaigned in the state and the party hopes to retain power. The Trinamool Congress became the main opposition party in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly overnight, with Sangma including most of the Congress MLAs joining the party.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which ran the government for five years under the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA), is in the fray alone and is hoping to increase its numbers in the assembly this time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Vishwa Sharma campaigned here for the BJP.

After all the Congress MLAs who won in the last assembly switched sides, the party is hopeful that this time with new faces, its position in the fray will remain strong. Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had addressed the rally in Shillong and said that the culture, language and tradition of the northeastern state would be saved.

The newly formed Voice of the People party (VPP) of activist Ardent Basaivemoit is also in the fray and is presenting itself as an alternative. The Meghalaya Assembly has 60 seats but the election to the Sohyeong seat in East Khasi Hills district has been postponed due to the death of UDP candidate HDR Lyngdoh.

The ruling NPP has fielded its candidates on 57 seats. Congress and BJP are contesting on all the seats while Trinamool Congress has fielded candidates on 58 seats. United Democratic Party (UDF) has 46 candidates in the fray. VPP is contesting on 18 and HSDNI on 11 seats. (agency)