Meghalaya: Congress’s Miani D Shira Wins
SHILLONG : Miani D Shira, the daughter of former chief minister Mukul Sangma, won the Ampati assembly seat in Meghalaya today – a victory that gave the Congress 21 seats, making it the single largest party in the state. So far, the National People’s Party or NPP-led alliance led by chief Minister Conrad Sangma, and the Congress, had 20 seats each.
When the early trends started coming in, NPP candidate Clement G Momin had taken lead in the seat. However, it is the Congress candidate that past through and took over the NPP candidate in the Ampati Election Result 2018. Ampati (ST) is one of the 60 Assembly seats in Meghalaya. Ampati is located in the South West Garo Hills district and Garo Hills region of Meghalaya.
The counting of votes in Ampati Election Result 2018 in Meghalaya began at 8 AM. The main contenders in the Ampati election were the Congress, National People’s Party (NPP) and an independent candidate. While there was Congress’ Miani D Shira, and NPP’s Clement G Momin, independent candidate Subhankar Koc was also in fray.
There are a total of 24,181 voters from the Ampati constituency. In 2013, former chief minister Mukul Sangma won Meghalaya bypolls. Recently, Sangma also won Ampati and Songsak Assembly seats held on February 27, 2018. However, he later vacated Ampati. As a result, the election to Ampati (ST) seat was necessitated.
The victory is expected to have a bearing on the Congress claim to form government – made after the recent assembly election in Karnataka, where the BJP was invited to form the government as the single largest party.
The Congress won 21 of the state’s 60 seats in the assembly polls held in February, but its number came down to 20 after it vacated the Ampati seat. Mukul Sangma, who won both from Ampati and Songsak, had to quit one seat. He chose Ampati – a seat he won five times — making the assembly election essential.
Eleven seats short of majority, the Congress lost the chance to form government as Conrad Sangma, with the backing of the BJP, quickly stitched up an alliance of five parties and staked claim to form government.
The NPP won 19 seats in the assembly elections and had the support of six legislators from the United Democratic Party, four from People’s Democratic Front, and two each from the HSPDP and the BJP, besides Independent lawmaker Samuel Sangma. Later, the NPP increased its tally to 20 after winning the Willamnagar seat, election to which was postponed following the death of a candidate.
Currently the alliance has 35 lawmakers – four above the magic number of 31.(With Agency Inputs ).
