Meghalaya: Curtains come down on Ampati by-election campaigning

AMPATI, May 27, 2018: The intense campaigning for the Ampati by-election concluded on Saturday, putting all eyes now, on the electorate that will choose the successor to Mukul Sangma, former Ampati legislator and former chief minister.

Miani D. Shira of the Congress, Clement G. Momin of the National People's Party (NPP) and Independent candidate Subhankar Koch are in the contest to succeed Mukul, whom Ampati elected six times.

Mukul relinquished the seat in March after he was elected from here as well as Songsak. Miani, 27, is Mukul's eldest daughter. While Momin had earlier unsuccessfully contested against Mukul, the Independent nominee is a new face.

Momin did not contest the February polls as the NPP, which heads the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, had not put up any candidate.

The BJP's Bakul Hajong, who had contested in February, was denied a party ticket.

Ampati has 28,545 electorate, of whom 14,366 are women, spread across 39 booths.

On Saturday, polling personnel assigned to the 21 farthest booths started their journey while the remaining teams will travel on Sunday.

Of the 39 booths, six have been classified as "vulnerable" owing to various reasons like group clashes, inter-state border areas, elephant infestation and remoteness.

Voting will take place from 7am to 5pm on Monday.

There was a "high-pitched" campaign by the NPP, led by chief minister and party chief Conrad K. Sangma. Manipur deputy chief minister Y. Joykumar Singh had also participated in the by-poll campaign.

TNT with inputs from The Telegraph

Image Courtesy: The Telegraph (Andrew W. Lyngdoh)