Ampareen, father-daughter duo to file papers on Day-1
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Filing of nominations for the election to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly will begin on Wednesday with the Election Department issuing the poll notification.
Congress nominee for East Shillong Ampareen Lyngdoh and father-daughter duo — Pynshai Manik Syiem (Mawphlang, Independent) and Teilinia Thangkhiew (Mylliem, Independent) — will file their papers on the first day. The last date for filing nomination is February 6.
Majority of the political parties have already declared their candidates.
While Congress is the only party to field candidates in all the 60 constituencies, the newly formed National People’s Party is all set to put up 35 candidates.
NCP has also cleared the names of 16 candidates including the party president and deputy speaker Sanbor Shullai.
The BJP has announced 13 names, while the biggest regional party, UDP is planning to field as many as 59 candidates.Smaller parties like the Lok Janshakti Party and Samajwadi Party announced 5 and 13 candidates.
Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills Sanjay Goyal on Tuesday said that his office is all prepared to set the poll process rolling.
The symbols for the Independents and unrecognized political parties would be allotted on February 9.
Reacting to a query, Goyal said that three vehicles of a candidate would be allowed to come within a 100-metre radius of the DC’s office and moreover, five people including the candidate would be allowed to come to the chamber of the Returning Officer to file nomination papers as per the directives of the Election Commission of India.
He also informed that a few DSP-level officers would be deployed to assist the Deputy Commissioner to ensure that there is no law and order problem when candidates and his or her supporters would come to the office to file papers.
It may be mentioned here that scrutiny of the nomination papers would be done on February 7 and the counting of votes will take place on February 28.