Elections will be held for two >Lok Sabha seats in Meghalaya tomorrow which will decide the fate of 10 candidates, including NPP chief P A Sangma, sitting Congress MP Vincent Pala, former student leader Paul Lyngdoh and church leader P B M Basaiawmoit.

The Shillong seat will witness a multi-cornered contest among the ruling Congress, the United Democratic Party and an independent candidate supported by two smaller regional parties,while the ruling Congress will contest against the P A Sangma-led National People’s Party for the Tura seat.

P A Sangma held the Tura seat eight out of 10 times, while the Congress won the Shillong seat seven times between 1977 and 2009. Since 1996, the Congress candidate consistently won the Shillong seat.

Of the electorate of 15,53,028, women voters numbering 13,512 are in the majority. There are 343 sensitive polling booths out of 2,562, of which 85 per cent were in the militant-hit Garo Hills region and classified as hyper sensitive.

Polling stations along the international border with Bangladesh and inter-state border with Assam are also classified as such.

The BSF has been asked to close the 443 km Indo-Bangla international border tomorrow, while additional forces have been deployed.

Related Topics