Admin issues rain alert to poll personnel
TURA: The dust has settled and the gruelling twenty long days of trudging into villages and localities to seek votes for by-poll to Tura Lok Sabha seat, slated for Monday, has finally ended for the two candidates- Conrad K Sangma of the NPP and Dikkanchi D Shira of the Congress.
Campaigning came to a close at 4pm on Saturday with both candidates winding up their elections rallies in West Garo Hills district where nature too joined the election bandwagon being as erratic as the mood of the fallible mortals, with gutsy showers playing spoilsport dipping the mercury but not the excitement.
The Congress rally of Dikkanchi D Shira at Rajabala to complete their campaign was a total washout due to an intense thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon while the NPP rally of Conrad K Sangma somehow managed to swim against the tide and address the crowd the downpour showing no signs of a respite.
This was an election replete with claims and counter claims, remarks and rhetoric blended with adrenalin and allegations running high. It had both drama and melodrama.
The Congress aggressively pushed through its agenda highlighting its ‘developmental’ works undertaken by the state government as it sought votes during the campaign trail.
The opposition NPP’s response was to highlight the central funding for the projects which the ruling state Congress was claiming.
At times subtlety appeared to have taken over substance, at other times wit had outrun itself.
Though Dikkanchi D Shira is the Congress candidate it was her husband and chief minister Mukul Sangma who went all guns blazing against the opposition candidate.
Heavy rain alert for poll personnel: Meanwhile, in view of the IMD weather forecast that heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to take place in certain pockets over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and ) Meghalaya within the next few days from May 14 to May 18, the Deputy Commissioner (Election) South West Garo Hills, Ram Singh on Saturday alerted the polling personnel, most of whom have already departed for their respective polling station, to take necessary precautionary measures. The sector officers have also been directed to alert the polling parties under their respective sectors to ensure that the likely occurrence of heavy rains do not disrupt the polling process in all the polling stations in the district. It may be mentioned that the movement of polling parties for the by-election to the 2-Tura parliamentary constituency had begun Saturday morning and 96 polling parties have already arrived at their respective polling stations in the three Assembly segments of South West Garo Hills, while the remaining 14 polling parties would depart on Sunday morning.