SHILLONG: The stage is set and the battle lines are drawn as Ranikor and South Tura constituency go for by-elections on Thursday
The Ranikor constituency is witnessing a multi-cornered contest among NPP’s MM Danggo, UDP’s Pius Marwein, PDF’S PN Syiem and Congress’ Jackiush Sangma.
On the other hand, the prestigious South Tura constituency will basically witness a direct fight between Congress’ Charlotte W Momin and NPP’s president, Conrad Sangma though two other independent candidates-John Leslee K Sangma and Chris Kabul A Sangma – are also in the fray.
Just ahead of the elections, all the contesting parties are exuding confident of their win in both the constituencies.
Deputy Chief Minister and NPP leader Prestone Tynsong said that NPP was going to win both the seats. He said that though the opponents in both constituencies were strong, but NPP was a clear winner.
Echoing similar views, UDP senior Allan Dkhar also sounded optimistic of a win for UDP in Ranikor and a win for the Chief Minister in South Tura.
“ As of today, we (UDP) are in leading position in Ranikor,” he said while adding that there will always be competition in any elections.
On the other hand, Congress leader, HM Shangpliang said that things have changed in Ranikor as people have understood the cause of the MM Danggo’s recent resignation from Congress as well as from Meghalaya Assembly.
He also said that people who had left Congress along with Danggo, are now returning to the party base especially in upper land since they has realised that Congress is the only party which can bring about development and ensure political stability.
As far as South Tura is concern, he said, that the party had come up well in the constituency and they were set to win the elections
In South Tura constituency, the polling station with the highest number of 1358 voters is Matchkolgre while the polling station with the lowest number of 151 voters is Leper Colony.
There will be Webcasting in six polling stations while one polling station will be all-women and two polling stations will be model polling stations. There will also be one special polling station for PWDs.
In Ranikor constituency, the polling station with the highest number of 901 voters is Nongkdait while the polling station with lowest number of 63 voters is Nongbahjynrinwith.
There are 10 non-motorable polling stations in the constituency and three polling stations with Webcasting facility.
There are also six polling stations near International border and one polling station close to an elephant corridor.