SHILLONG: The United Democratic Party (UDP) has admitted that Shella bypoll will not be an easy battle to win in the absence of party veteran Donkupar Roy, who contested the polls and won for seven consecutive terms in Shella.
The UDP leader and Social Welfare Minister, Kyrmen Shylla on Thursday admitted that it is a big challenge looking at the margin.
“Dr Donkupar Roy won the elections for seven consecutive terms but the margins were low and it is hard to predict. It is difficult to work in his style without his guidance for the bypoll,” said Shylla.
He, however, said the support looks over whelming and the possibilities for UDP to secure a victory are very high.
“This time I believe that the margins will be higher and not below 500 and with the support of our friends we hope it will increase,” he added.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, Roy, who secured 8,280 votes, won by a margin of only 370 votes against the then PDF candidate Leston Wanswett.
Asked if there would have been a better chance for the UDP to win if all of its coalition partners had supported the UDP candidate, Shylla said, “The more the better. We cannot stop anyone from contesting, but if we were together it would have been the best”.
After the demise of Roy on July 28, the UDP is fielding his son Balajied Synrem for the Shella bypoll scheduled on October 21 and the party is going all out to secure a win together with the support of the NPP.
The counting of votes is on October 24.
Altogether there are six candidates in the fray and the constituency has 29,582 voters with 14,844 females and 14,698 males.
