M'laya returns two MPs
Meghalaya has reposed its faith in two MPs of the dissolved Parliament with Sangma and Kyndiah retaining their seats.
Meghalaya has reposed its faith in two MPs of the dissolved Parliament with both, Purno Sangma, the All-India Trinamool Congress leader, and Congress nominee PR Kyndiah retaining Tura and Shillong constituencies respectively.
Sangma, who contested from his home constituency -- Tura -- for the eighth time in a row now, defeated his Congress rival Mukul Sangma in a straight fight by a margin of 72,763 votes.
The former Lok Sabha speaker, who sought re-election this time on the AITC ticket after losing his Nationalist Congress Party symbol to the Sharad Pawar group, polled 1,91,938 votes as against Mukul Sangma's 1,19,175 votes.
The margin of Sangma's victory, however, this time was reduced from the 1999 elections when he had won the five-pronged electoral battle by a margin of over 1.13 lakh votes from his nearest Congress rival, Atul C Marak.
In Shillong seat, Kyndiah, a Congress ideologue and former Mizoram governor, made a hat-trick by defeating his nearest independent rival, S Loniak Marbaniang, supported by four regional parties alliance, by a margin of 70,896 votes.
BJP's Sanbor Swell Lyngdoh, came third.
While Kyndiah polled 1,90,058 votes, Marbaniang got 1,19,162 votes. Lyngdoh's got 58,560 votes.
Kyndiah, who had won the 1999 elections by a margin of over 37,000 votes, almost doubled his margin this time in a three-corner battle.
