Politics / Meghalaya

SHILLONG, Feb 17—Security has been geared up in the entire state which goes to the polls on February 26. Meghalaya, Director General of Police L Sailo informed newspersons that about 45 companies of security forces including the state police will be deployed to ensure smooth conduct of the Assembly polls.

Assistance of the BSF would be sought if required, Sailo said, adding that besides the existing ten companies of CRPF, three battalions of state police and one newly-recruited battalion, the Centre had sanctioned 15 companies of additional forces to be deployed in the state. Sensitive and...

SHILLONG, Feb 12 ? A total of 317 candidates were left in the fray after withdrawal of nominations on the last date of withdrawal Monday for the February 26 Meghalaya Assembly election, official sources said today, reports PTI.

Chief Minister Dr Flinder Anderson Khonglam is locked in a five-corner contest from Sohra on HSPDP ticket while Deputy Chief Minister D D Lapang (Congress) is fighting a four- corner contest from his earlier constituency Nongpoh.

Former Chief Minister Salseng Marak (Congress) is facing a straight fight with NCP candidate Timothy Shira from Resubelpara. Another former...

Shillong, Feb. 6: Denied a ticket by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Meghalaya chief minister F.A. Khonglam today filed his nomination from the Hill State Peoples? Democratic Party (HSPDP).

Khonglam had first won the Assembly elections on an HSPDP ticket in 1983 from Sohra constituency.

The chief minister, who turned 58 today, did not regret being denied a ticket by the NCP. Instead, he warned the NCP that its dreams of making a forceful debut ?would be shattered?.

Soon after filing his nomination papers, Khonglam told reporters that he would ?gradually expose the way most legislators...

Shillong, Feb. 4: Ingenuity seems to be the flavour of the election season in Meghalaya. A few days after the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) released an audio cassette of songs to woo the electorate, chief minister F.A. Khonglam?s campaign team came out with a colourful calendar bearing his photograph and name. Copies of the calendar are now being distributed free among voters in Khonglam?s constituency, Sohra.

J.S. Phanbuh, who is the chief minister?s brother-in-law and NCP candidate for the Jirang seat, and Ardhendhu Chaudhuri from Mawprem are doing likewise in a bid to gain visibility...

Shillong, Feb. 4: The Nationalist Congress Party has denied Meghalaya chief minister F.A. Khonglam a ticket to contest the Assembly elections slated for February 26.

The general secretary of the NCP?s Meghalaya unit, Fearless Warjri, told newspersons today that Khonglam?s application had been rejected. ?The NCP high command has approved the decision taken by the state election committee sometime back,? Warjri said.

The NCP confirmed the news through a statement here this evening. ?Khonglam?s application has not been entertained. The party decided not to nominate him as its candidate for the...

SHILLONG, Feb 4 ? Former Finance Minister and sitting MLA from the Jaiaw constituency A H Lyngdoh is confident of retaining his seat. Talking to The Assam Tribune, Sri Lyngdoh said the voters would take into account the developmental work done by him. Asked if the going would be tough for him this time with former KSU chief and president of the Khun Hyniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHWAM) pitted against him, the veteran politician said ?it is not a question of age versus youth.?

A former bureaucrat, Lyngdoh, who is a candidate of the newly formed Meghalaya Democratic party (MDP)...

Shillong, Feb. 3: Setting speculation at rest, Meghalaya chief minister F.A. Khonglam today applied for a ticket from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the February 26 Assembly elections.

Khonglam will contest from the 29 Sohra Legislative Assembly constituency from where he had won the previous election as an Independent.

With Khonglam finally applying for the party ticket, the NCP now has only three seats ? Sohryngkham, Mawlai and Jaiaw ? free. The party will now contest 56 of the 60 seats, having allotted the Shella constituency to Mathew M. Mawdakat.

?I will file nomination...

GUWAHATI, Feb 3 ? For close to six weeks, Dr P Bezbaruah, the District Medical Health Officer in Meghalaya?s East Garo Hills district, was kept moving around the deep jungles in the Garo Hills after being kidnapped by the militant Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC) on the fateful evening of December 19. Today, after being released by the Garo militant group on January 29, he is back among family and friends. Though his over 40-day agony has, fortunately, not left much of a physical scar, it has left him mentally strained.

Dr Bezbaruah, originally from Sivasagar, came to his Guwahati home...

Tura, Feb. 2: With the Assembly polls in Meghalaya inching closer, militancy has become the favourite stick of leaders here to beat one another.

This is particularly true of NCP leader P.A. Sangma and PCC chief S.C. Marak ? both leaders are holding each other responsible for fostering insurgency in the poll hotbed of Garo Hills.

While Sangma has made it a point to associate Marak with the ?resurgence? of insurgency in Garo Hills in almost every political address, the former Congress chief minister, too, has hurled a similar accusation back on Sangma, though in a restrained manner.

?I do not...

Shillong, Feb. 2: The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM), the political wing of the Khasi Students? Union (KSU), has decided to make influx of Hindus into Meghalaya a poll issue. The party wants to deny legal status to Hindu migrants who entered the state after March 24, 1971.

Party president Paul Lyngdoh released a policy statement, which said: ?Illegal Hindu migrants who have infiltrated after March 24, 1971, should not be granted refugee status?.

The policy statement, entitled ?Meghalaya?s economy and agenda for action?, said it would treat migrants coming after the cut...