Meghalaya Assembly Bypoll Results: Conrad Sangma Wins South Tura; UDP's Pius Marwein Registers Victory in Ranikor

New Delhi: Counting of votes in the two assembly bypolls in Meghalaya, South Tura and Ranikor began at 8 AM on Monday. Voting took place on Thursday, August 23. Election officials had deployed at least 10 sprinters including marathon national champion Binning Lyngkhoi to act as messengers to collect information including voting percentage from the polling stations. The polling percentage in South Tura which has around 30,231 voters was 72.89% while the Ranikor Assembly constituency which has total 29,685 voters saw a total turnout of 85.89 per cent.

The by-election in South Tura was necessitated after Agatha Sangma resigned to pave the way for her brother and chief minister Conrad Sangma to contest. Conrad was pitted against Congress candidate Charlotte W Momin, John Leslee K. Sangma and Kris Kabul A. Sangma (independents). He was hopeful to win the South Tura assembly seat in order to retain his chief ministership.

Meanwhile, the Ranikor  assembly seat fell vacant after former Public Works Department Minister and five-time Congress legislator from Ranikor constituency, Martin Dango, resigned as member of the State Assembly and joined the ruling NPP after the government announced the creation of Ranikor Civil Sub-Division.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a part of the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, had decided not to contest the by-elections and support the NPP candidate Conrad from South Tura assembly seat.

Source:http://www.india.com/news