GUWAHATI: The United Democratic Party (UDP) won the deferred election to the Sohiong seat, the results of which were declared on Saturday.
The UDP’s Synshar Lyngdoh Thabah defeated Samlin Malngiang of the National People’s Party (NPP) by 3,422 votes. Thabah polled 16,679 votes against 13,257 by Malngiang.
UDP chief Metbah Lyngdoh was ecstatic. He expressed his gratitude to people for reposing their faith in the UDP and its candidate. “The results were on expected lines. We could feel the pulse of people during our election campaign. I have been a part of the campaign and I could feel people were going to vote for us,” Lyngdoh told TNIE.
Assembly election in the state was held on February 27 but Sohiong could not go to that poll due to the demise of the UDP candidate HDR Lyngdoh.
Lyngdoh said various factors, including a sympathy wave, worked in the UDP’s favour in the deferred election to the seat.
“People looked at various factors. Our candidate is a very down-to-earth person high in confidence and he was able to get the love of people. Another factor is regionalism. People viewed the UDP as the biggest regional party that could sustain all these years,” Lyngdoh said.
With this win, the UDP’s tally rose to 12 in the 60-member Assembly. The UDP is an ally of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance which Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s NPP heads. The NPP had bagged 26 seats in the Assembly elections. With 11 seats, the UDP had emerged as the second-largest party.
Apart from UDP and NPP, BJP, Congress, Hill State People’s Democratic Party and Trinamool Congress contested the Sohiong polls. A voter turnout of 91.87% was recorded when the by-poll was held on May 10.