Meghalaya Throws Up Hung Assembly, Conrad Sangma's NPP Is Single Largest Party, Gets BJP Support

As per the official trends of the Election Commission of India (ECI), NPP has won 26 seats, BJP secured two seats, and the United Democratic Party took the second lead with 11 seats.

Meghalaya Election Results 2023: As per the exit poll predictions, Meghalaya on Thursday witnessed a fractured mandate, with the Conrad Sangma's National People's Party emerging as the single largest party in the state assembly elections. 

Earlier amidst the fear of hung assembly, Conrad Sangma had approached Union Home Minister Amit Shah asking for his support in forming the new government, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has tweeted. Afterwards, announcing the decision, CM Sarma tweeted that BJP national president JP Nadda had advised the post-poll alliance to form the government in Meghalaya.

As per the official trends of the Election Commission of India (ECI), NPP has won 26 seats, BJP secured two seats, and the United Democratic Party took the second lead with 11 seats.

In the state assembly, a party has to win at least 31 seats to go past the majority mark. However, even after a post-poll alliance with the BJP, NPP seems to trail behind the mark by three seats. With this, the predictions of a hung assembly in Meghalaya seems to come to reality. 

Early Trends

In the early trends, the NPP took the lead but faced competition from TMC, while the BJP and Congress trailed. 

After one hour of counting votes to the 59 assembly seats, the trend showed that the TMC was leading on 21 seats while the NPP was ahead on 16 seats. Congress and BJP were leading on 13 and 8 seats respectively.

At the second hour of counting, the NPP stood at 25 seats, the TMC at 9, the BJP at 8, and Congress at 6 while others stood at 11.

Meghalaya Exit Poll Predictions

It may be recalled that Times Now-ETG, India Today-My Axis and Zee News-Matrize had predicted a hung house in the state, even though Meghalaya’s Chief Minister Conrad Sangma remained confident of victory. The majority mark to form government in the state is 31. As per the exit polls, the NPP may end up with 20 seats, while the BJP, an NPP ally in power which fought the elections separately, may increase its tally from 2 to 6.

Meghalaya Legislative Assembly

Meghalaya has a 60-member assembly, but polling in the Sohiong constituency was adjourned following the death of one of the candidates. The Congress and the BJP contested in 59 seats, while the NPP had put up nominees in 56 constituencies, the TMC in 57 and the UDP in 46.

After polling on February 27, F R Kharkongor said that 85.25 per cent of the state’s 21.6 lakh voters exercised their franchise during the assembly election held. The tenure of the 10th Meghalaya Assembly is scheduled to end on March 15, 2023. In the 2018 Meghalaya Assembly election, a coalition led by the National People's Party (NPP) formed the state government, with Conrad Sangma becoming Chief Minister.

The Election Commission (EC) has deployed 119 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in Meghalaya to ensure a smooth polling process.

According to ANI, the ECI has set up 13 counting centres and the security at all EVM strong rooms has been strengthened with up to three layers of security in place. 

According to EC, 375 candidates are contesting for the 60 Assembly seats.

The ruling National People's Party (NPP) is striving to retain power in the northeastern state, while the BJP, Trinamool Congress, and other regional parties hope to bring about a change in the government.