Meghalaya went to polls this month along with Tripura and Nagaland. The voting for the 60-member Meghalaya assembly took place on February 27. Votes are being counted today in Meghalaya, as well as Nagaland and Tripura.
Voting in Meghalaya was held for 59 assembly seats after polling in the Sohiong constituency was deferred due to the death of HDR Lyngdoh, former state home minister and a United Democratic Party candidate. A total of 375 candidates are in the fray in the 2023 Meghalaya election.
The northeastern state saw a voter turnout of 74.3 per cent. Meghalaya saw a multi-cornered contest among the BJP, Conrad Sangma's National People's Party (NPP), Congress and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
The poll of exit polls showed that the NPP will emerge as the single largest party with 20 seats while the Trinamool Congress will win 11 seats. The BJP and the Congress are forecast to claim three seats each in the assembly. Other parties, meanwhile, are forecast to bag 17 seats, according to the exit polls.
The NPP and BJP had joined hands to contest the 2018 election together and formed government in Meghalaya. The BJP ended its alliance with the NPP ahead of the polls this year and decided to field candidates for all 60 assembly seats.
The Trinamool Congress has become the largest opposition party in the state. It welcomed 12 Congress MLAs including former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in 2021. The party contested 58 seats this year.
The Congress has seen an erosion of its voter base in Meghalaya after emerging as the largest single party with 21 seats in 2018. The BJP won two seats in the last assembly election and is now looking to expand its footprint in Meghalaya.
Elections