Meghalaya Assembly polls: NPP emerge as single largest party in hung assembly

Shillong (Meghalaya) [India], March 2 (ANI): The counting of votes for the Meghalaya Assembly elections ended on Thursday with the National People's Party (NPP) coming out as the single largest party with 26 seats, as no party was able to touch the majority mark (31 seats) on its own.
The former ally of NPP, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 2 seats, while TMC, which is the principal Opposition in the state, won 5 seats.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma won the South Tura seat with a margin of over 5000 votes.
The People's Democratic Front bagged 2 seats, the United Democratic Party won 11 seats, the Voice of the People party won 4 seats and Hill State People's Democratic Party won 2 seats.
The Congress party also won 5 seats, while 2 seats were bagged by independent candidates.
Earlier in the day, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Sarma said that his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma called Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking support to form a government in the state.
"Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad Sangma called Amit Shah ji, Hon'ble Home Minister and sought his support and blessings in forming the new Government," tweeted CM Sarma.
Sarma further said that BJP national president JP Nadda has advised the state unit of the party to support the National People's Party in forming the next government in Meghalaya.
"Adaraniya Sri JP Nadda ji, the national president of the BJP has advised the state unit of BJP, Meghalaya to support the National People's Party in forming the next government in Meghalaya," Assam CM added.
Earlier, Sangma dropped a subtle hint of a possible post-poll alliance, as the latest counting trends pointed to the likelihood of a hung Assembly.
He said his party will wait till the number stabilizes and a clearer picture emerges and will then deliberate on a post-poll tie-up, if necessary.
"We'd like to thank the people of the state for having voted for us. We are a few numbers short, so we'll wait for the final results to come out. We will decided our future course of action on the basis of the final results," CM Sangma told ANI.
The voting for Meghalaya was held on February 27, with a voting percentage of over 76 percent being recorded.
Polling was held at 3,419 polling stations across 59 Assembly constituencies in the state.
Out of the 60 Assembly constituencies in Meghalaya, 36 constituencies fall in Khasi, Jaintia Hills region while 24 are in Garo Hills region. (ANI)