ECI to announces LS poll dates; Meghalaya to go to polls in first phase on April 19

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 15: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the schedule for the general elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies 2024 on March 16.

Meghalaya has two parliamentary seats – Shillong and Tura.

Most of the political parties have announced their respective candidates for both the seats.

The candidates for the Shillong seat include sitting Congress MP Vincent H Pala, NPP leader and cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh, RDA candidate Robertjune Kharjahrin, VPP general secretary Ricky AJ Syngkon and NEHU prof Lakhon Kma.

The candidates for Tura parliamentary seat include sitting NPP MP Agatha K Sangma, Congress legislator from Gambegre Saleng A Sangma, former TMC legislator from Rangsakona Zenith M Sangma.

With the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing the poll dates for the General Elections to the 18th Lok Sabha on Saturday, the two seats in Meghalaya – Shillong and Tura – will go to the polls in the first phase on April 19. The results will be declared on June 4.

The Shillong seat, with 13,14,036 electorates as per the 2021 data, will witness a tight contest, among the incumbent Vincent H Pala of the Indian National Congress (INC), who is a consecutively three-time winner, former Congress woman, M Ampareen Lyngdoh, now an NPP minister in the ruling dispensation, a former civil society group leader Robertjune Kharjahrin representing a regional party conglomerate consisting of United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP)-coined Regional Democratic Alliance, Dr. Ricky J Syngkon, a college teacher of the infantile Voice of the People’s Party (VPP).

In Tura, where sitting MP Agatha Sangma, a five-times MP and the youngest minister ever to be in the Union government, will face insignificant challenge from the INC’s Saleng Sangma, and a challenger from the BJP. The Tura seat has 10,11,676 electorates as per the 2021 data.