UDP’s Balajied Synrem sets new record for highest victory margin in Shella

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 24, 2019

Synrem (31), a lawyer by profession will be sworn in as the newly elected MLA of Shella constituency at the Speaker’s chamber on Friday. 

SHILLONG: The United Democratic Party (UDP) on Thursday tasted a historic win in the Shella Assembly constituency that was represented by its late president Dr Donkupar Roy since 1988. His death on July 28 had necessitated the bypoll. 

UDP’s candidate Balajied Kupar Synrem retained the seat by a margin of 6,221 votes, which is against his late father’s cumulative winning margin over last 7 terms at 3,857. 

Late Dr Donkupar won the 2018 Assembly polls by a margin of only 370 votes before he was elected as Speaker of the state legislative assembly.   

The victory also came as a huge morale booster for the ruling National People’s Party (NPP)-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA), whose strength has increased to 41 seats in the 60-member House.

Synrem defeated his nearest rival Grace Mary Kharpuri by securing 12,002 votes. Kharpuri, a sitting Nongshken MDC, ditched the opposition Congress for denying her ticket and contested as Independent candidate.  She secured only 5,781 votes. 

Apart from the symphathy wave, the full support extended by the NPP and the Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) has also contributed to the victory of the UDP’s candidate. 

Synrem (31), a lawyer by profession will be sworn in as the newly elected MLA of Shella constituency at the Speaker’s chamber on Friday. 

UDP president Metbah Lyngdoh, who is also the Speaker of the state Assembly, has congratulated Synrem on winning the seat by a record margin. 

“I congratulate the people of Shella for choosing Balajied as their representative in the Assembly. I am optimistic that he will emulate his father while serving his people and to strive towards overall development,” Lyngdoh said. 

Meanwhile, the bye-election was also contested by two MDA partners – People’s Democratic Front (PDF) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

Mosjo Rockfeller Wanswett of the PDF polled 4,327 votes while Joshua Warjri of the BJP and another independent candidate Komen Laitmon forfeited their security deposits by securing only 742 votes and 444 votes respectively. 

On the other hand, 188 voters have pressed the NOTA button. 

It was also a setback for the opposition Congress when its candidate Batyngshain Ryngnga polled 1715 votes. There were also allegations of Ryngnga’s surrendering ahead of the bypoll wherein he had appealed to his supporters to support Kharpuri.  

A Congress leader on request of anonymity said that the party will initiate action against the candidate.   

Earlier, Kharpuri left the counting centre at the office of the SDO Sohra before the results were declared. She told reporters that she did not expect that the result would be so bad and that she had no idea as to where things had gone wrong. 

Over 25,000 voters exercised their franchise in the bye-election held on October 21. 

State’s chief electoral officer Frederick Roy Kharkongor said VVPAT paper slips of 5 randomly selected VVPATs were manually counted in the VVPAT Counting Booth and there was no mismatch between the manually counted VVPAT paper slips and votes recorded on the EVM.