2018 Meghalaya Assembly Elections Feb 27,2018 - Polling Takes Place Today Tuesday Feb 27,2018

 

Polling for the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly began at 7 am on Tuesday morning amid tight security.

A state carved out of Assam in 1970, has almost always had a coalition government ruling it.

 In the 2013 polls, no other party apart from Congress managed to touch the double digit. Even Congress currently has only 24 seats, in the 60 member house.

Of the three states where elections are taking place, this is the only one which has a Congress government.

Other two, Tripura which went to polls on 18th February has a Left Front government and Nagaland is ruled by Naga People’s Front.

In Meghalaya polling takes place for 59 seats as the election has been countermanded in Williamnagar in the wake of the killing of NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma in an IED blast in East Garo Hills district on February 18,2018

For the Congress, the poll outcome in Meghalaya is particularly significant as it has been ruling the state for the last 10 years.

But this time, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to throw the Congress out of power and add Meghalaya into its kitty.

In Meghalaya, the Congress and the BJP are pitted against each other. While the former has fielded 59 candidates, the latter has put up nominees in 47 constituencies.

Though they are contesting the polls separately, in Meghalaya, the National People's Party (NPP) of Conrad Sangma, son of former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, is the BJP's partner in the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).


  There are 370 candidates in the fray in Meghalaya.

Meghalaya's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) F R Kharkongor said for the first time, 67 all-women polling stations and 61 model polling stations were set up in the state.


A total of 18.4 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at 3,083 polling stations in the state. Chief Electoral Officer F R Kharkongor said 67 all-women polling stations and 61 model polling stations have been set up for the first time in the state. Thirty-two women are in the fray, the maximum so far in electoral politics in the state, he said.