By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Pynthorumkhrah constituency is gearing up to witness a direct contest between sitting Congress legislator AL Hek and Independent candidate Process T Sawkmie.
Hek had won as a BJP candidate with huge margins in the previous two elections in 2003 and 2008, but this time he is facing a tough battle.
Analysts say that that the main reason behind Hek’s landside victories in the last two elections was the fact that former MPCC president OL Nongtdu and former Pynthorumkhrah legislator JM Pariat had both made last-minute decisions to contest the elections.
In the 2003 election, Hek (then BJP) had defeated Nongtdu (Congress) by a huge margin of 7159 votes while in 2008 the BJP candidate got the better of Pariat (NCP) by 8559 votes.
The current picture is totally different since Sawkmie has prepared the necessary ground work for the past five years to contest the election, the analysts say.
However, after realizing the strategy of his opponent, Hek also launched his campaign earlier this time as compared to the previous occasions.
One major hurdle in front of Hek would be the delimitation of the constituency.
It is estimated that around 12000 votes have moved out of the constituency due to the delimitation.
All these votes were from the localities of Oakland, Jail Road, Governor’s House, RR Colony (Umpling), Lawmali and Forest Colony, which were all Hek strongholds.
These areas have now been tagged with Nongthymmai and Shillong North constituencies.
The other deciding factor for Hek is than 2500 plus new votes have been added to his constituency from Mawpat village which is a traditional Sawkmie forte as the same village is attached with Mawlai constituency for the District Council elections.
Presently, the constituency has a total number of 24940 votes with 11902 male and 13038 female voters who will decide the fate of the candidates.
Another factor which is going against the sitting legislator is the anti-incumbency issue. Sawkmie would not face this problem since this is the first time he is contesting from the constituency.
As per a survey conducted, Hek still maintains an edge in the constituency at present with Sawkmie a close second.
The sitting legislator is expected to be leading in Golflink areas which include Mawpun, Polo Hills, Khlieh Shnong and others. Golflink which has total of 8000 plus votes has been rallying behind Hek in the past two elections. However, Sawkmie is expected to be leading in Nongmynsong and Mawpat.
Hek has always faced difficulties in garnering votes in Nongmynsong.
Votes from Pynthor, Langkyrding and Lumshyiap are expected to be shared since neither candidate has been found to have a clear edge over the other in these localities.
It has been estimated that a total number of 4000 plus anti-Hek votes which had voted for Nongtdu and Pariat in the previous two Assembly elections would vote in favour of Sawkmie.
Apart from Hek and Sawkmie, three other candidates – Predecessor Rumnong (UDP), Satyendra Kumar Joshi (NCP) and Andy Lyngwa (BJP) are also in the fray.
There was a belief initially among the people of the constituency that the UDP candidate is a dummy candidate of the sitting legislator since he is known to be the close aide of Hek.
But now it looks like Rumnong means business since he has managed to garner quite a substantial amount of supporters in the constituency and may play spoilsport to both Hek and Sawkmie.
Though not much is known about the BJP and NCP candidate, it is expected that the BJP candidate (Joshi) would garner a sizeable number of non-tribal votes since the party has a dedicated vote bank in the constituency.