The National People’s Party leader has expressed confidence to win the Sohiong seat in the upcoming election to be held on May 10.
Speaking to media persons, NPP leader Ampareen Lyngdoh said, “We are happy that the Election Commission deemed it fit to conduct the election of Sohiong constituency in the state of Meghalaya at the earliest within the six months period and we are happy that this announcement has come now because we need to complete the electoral procedures and processes.”
“I on behalf of my own party feel that we will work very hard and we will try to retain the seat. It was the NPP seat and it should not be a very complicated matter because the candidate in his original position belongs to the NPP and we will try our best to retain that one seat,” she said.
Sohiong was represented by Samlin Malngiang, who resigned from the Hill State People’s Democratic Party and joined the NPP ahead of the just concluded 2023 Assembly polls.
She said “Every political party who has filed the nomination will take it seriously and will fight to the hilt but because now we are partners in government we expect this election not to be as lethal as the elections of the general election that just concluded.”
Lyngdoh said whether or not Sohiong election will impact on government’s strength or weakness is to be seen but as things are as of today candidates have all filed their nominations and it is expected that only the incumbent party who lost their candidate will field the new candidate
“I do not foresee that the result will impact negatively on the strength of this government because this government is a coalition and is in continuation of MDA 2.0 now,” she said
Interestingly, since 2003, the Sohiong seat was the Congress bastion, former Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh won this seat five terms. HDR Lyngdoh, commonly known as Maheh, was the Home Minister in the Dr Mukul Sangma-led Congress government. He first won as an MLA from Sohiong in 1988 on a Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) ticket and continued till 1998.
In the 1998 assembly polls, he lost the seat to RA Lyngdoh of the United Democratic Party (UDP) but in 1999, he won as an MDC on the Congress ticket from the Sohiong-Nongspung constituency.
Again, in the 2003 assembly polls, he recaptured the Sohiong seat from UDP’s RA Lyngdoh and won on a Congress ticket. He continued as the MLA of Sohiong till 2018.
In the 2018 general elections, he lost the seat to HSPDP’s Samlin Malngiang.
Congress Legislature Party Leader Ronnie V Lyngdoh recalled the former Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh won the Sohiong mostly as Congress candidate.
“When it comes to Sohiong it’s a peculiar case because during the campaign one of the candidates expired and he happens to be a very popular man there. He was in Congress, he got elected mostly from congress ticket,” Lyngdoh said.
“So as far as Sohiong is concerned we will wait and when the campaign starts we will be able to know the exact position of the party there,” he added.