Meghalaya CM Conard Sangma, family visit grave of his father and former CM PA Sangma on counting day

CM Sangma was accompanied by his mother Soradini K Sangma, brother James Sangma and sister Agatha K Sangma.

Ahead of Meghalaya Assembly election results, Chief Minister Conard Sangma visited the grave of his father and former CM, PA Sangma in Tura on Thursday. CM Sangma was accompanied by his mother Soradini K Sangma, brother James Sangma and sister Agatha K Sangma.

The counting for the polls in three Norteast states -- Tripura, Meghalaya and Tripura -- started at 8 am. According to the data shared by the EC at 10:32 am, NPP's chief Conrad K Sangma is leading from South Tura against Bharatiya Janata Party's Bernard N Marak by a margin of 44.

The ruling National People's Party (NPP) is leading in 17 of the 59 Assembly constituencies of Meghalaya while the United Democratic Party (UDP) was leading 9, according to the latest trend shared by the Election Commission on Thursday. The counting of votes is still underway, and trends on 47 seats are known.

According to the Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) FR Kharkongor, three-tier security arrangements have been made with Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) guarding the innermost layer and State Armed police will keep vigil over the second and third layers. Shillong has the States maximum number of 14 Counting Halls, one each for each assembly constituency.

West Garo Hills District Counting Centre caters to 11 assembly constituencies and is the second-largest counting centre in the state. Election Commission has deployed 27 Counting Observers and over 500 micro observers are assisting the Counting Observers at each table.

Each table has a counting Observer assisted by four counting assistants. The exit polls published by various media groups predicted that the northeastern state would have a hung house, with Sangma's NPP emerging as the single-largest party.

Following this, Conrad Sangma said that he would keep all options to form a stable government."We will keep all our options open to form a stable government. We are happy to see the trend is in line as we expected to get more seats than we received last time," said Sangma. Meghalaya recorded a voting percentage of over 76 per cent on Monday. Polling was held at 3,419 polling stations across 59 Assembly constituencies in the state.

Of the 60 Assembly constituencies in Meghalaya, 36 constituencies fall in Khasi, Jaintia Hills region while 24 are in Garo Hills region. However, polling for the Sohiong Assembly constituency was postponed following the demise of the state's former Home Minister and United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate from the seat HDR Lyngdoh. 

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