Meghalaya will vote for a new government next week. The single-phase polling for all 60 seats in the state is scheduled for February 27. Here are the key details about the upcoming electoral contest.

Date and Time

The counting of votes will be started on March 2 with official results being declared shortly afterwards.

Where to track

The official website of the Election Commission of India will upload data for the elections once the counting begins. The ECI website will show both party-wise and constituency-wise results. For more polling news and results, follow the CNBC-TV18 website and TV channel.

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Exit Polls

As part of the election exercise, the ECI has banned the publication of all exit polls for the Meghalaya elections. The ban orders will remain in place from 7 am on February 16 to 7 pm on February 27. Displaying any exit or opinion polls on electronic media will also be prohibited for 48 hours following February 27.

Most experts and poll pundits are expecting to see a hung assembly in the coming election due to the tight multi-party contest in the state. The last assembly elections had also resulted in a hung assembly before the National People Party leader Conrad Sangma had managed to cobble together a government.

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Key Details

The Congress (INC) won 21 seats in the last election but fell short of crossing the 31-seat majority mark. The National People's Party (NPP) formed the government in an alliance with the United Democratic Party (UDP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and others. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) also entered the state assembly after a large number of Congress MLAs switched sides.

However, in this election the NPP is looking to contest alone, setting the stage for a multi-party struggle. The UDP-BJP alliance will try to form the government on their own while the Congress will see if it can recreate the last election’s results but keep a hold of its leaders this time. Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress is hoping to expand out of West Bengal after a failed play in Goa last year.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)

First Published:Feb 23, 2023 1:47 PM IST