From C K Nayak
NEW DELHI: Barely a day after elections were announced and even before the names of all the candidates have been released, a leading survey has predicted a seat each for NPP and Congress in Meghalaya with the former ahead in terms of vote share.
Incidentally, while the office of the AICC here is abuzz with talk of seat distribution, the sitting MP and frontrunner for Shillong seat, Vincent H Pala, is arriving in the national capital tonight. Former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, whose name is not on the list of prospective candidates forwarded by the state Congress to the AICC, has also arrived here.
The Screening Committee of AICC is slated to meet on March 13 to finalise the two candidates. While regional parties and BJP are also in the fray, the contest will be most likely with the UDP in Shillong and with NPP in Tura.
The ruling MDA on Monday decided to field former UDP MLA Jemino Mawthoh as its common candidate for the Shillong seat while leaving Tura to the NPP which is, however, yet to decide on its candidate.
To present a snapshot projection of where the various parties stand at the moment in different states, Republic TV and C Voter have published the National Approval Ratings predicting a seat each in Meghalaya for NPP and Congress if elections are held today. But the vote share of the Congress-led UPA will be at 38.1 per cent followed by NDA with 29.5 per cent.
Others, which include regional parties and independents, were not projected to win even a single seat despite cornering the remaining vote share. An average month-wise performance for the last few months showed that the Congress is increasing its vote share in the hill state.