The United Democratic Party (UDP) on Saturday comfortably won the Sohiong Assembly seat in Meghalaya.
UDP candidate Synshar Kupar Roy Lyngdoh Thabah won by 3422 votes, pushing the National People’s Party (NPP)’s Samlin Malngiang to the second spot, by bagging 16,679 votes against 13257 by the latter. Polling was held on May 10.
The win took UDP tally in the Assembly to 12.
The Congress finished third (1762 votes).
The Trinamul Congress (89), the Hill State People’s Democratic Party (62) and the BJP (40) polled less than 100 of the total 32,161 votes. NOTA secured 272 votes.
Polls to the LAC were deferred owing to the death of the UDP candidate HDR Lyngdoh ahead of the February 27 Assembly polls, which saw the ruling NPP finish in pole position with 26 seats out of 60.
The NPP first received the support of the BJP, HSPDP and Independent MLAs (two each) and later that of the UDP and the People’s Democratic Front (PDF) to form an NPP-led coalition government on March 7.
The PDF with its two MLAs merged with the NPP (28) last week. The NPP-led ruling coalition now has 46 MLAs.
