Police have arrested 31 people in connection with Tuesday night’s clash between the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) and Opposition Trinamul Congress activists in poll-bound Meghalaya.

A West Garo Hills police officer said on Thursday that 16 Trinamul and 15 NPP members were among the arrested and raids were on to arrest the others involved in the clash that took place in the Phulbari Assembly constituency.

Meghalaya goes to the polls on February 27.

According to Wednesday’s report of the West Garo Hills district election officer, an NPP leader and his supporters were passing through the incident site when a few Trinamul supporters “hit their Scorpio vehicle which led to the scuffle”.

Ground reports suggest both parties were giving their all to win the seat, going by the frayed tempers on display on Tuesday night.

The police have registered two cases in connection with the incident and altogether identified 125 suspected trouble-mongers from the area.

They are being made to execute a bond to “maintain good behaviour”, failing which they may be taken into preventive detention. This is seen by many as a message to trouble-mongers at large to behave or face action.

The immediate crackdown and deployment of the central armed police forces for area domination ensured the situation did not drift.

Nine people were sent to the Phulbari primary health care centre. All, except one, were discharged after an examination. The one not discharged was advised advanced treatment as his injury was close to his eye.

S.G. Esmatur Mominin is the Trinamul candidate from Phulbari. He was the NPP MLA from the seat before he joined Trinamul in January after the NPP named former Phulbari MLA Abu Taher Mondal as its nominee.

In fact, most of the 24 of the 60 seats in the five Garo Hills district could largely see an NPP-TMC fight.

The Trinamul had impacted the Congress’ base in the state by getting 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs under its fold in 2021.