Shillong, Feb 21: Following the death of former Home Minister and UDP’s Sohiong candidate, HDR Lyngdoh, the election commission has decided to postpone the assembly election for the Sohiong constituency.

While the remaining 59 constituencies will go to polls on February 27, a rescheduled date for Sohiong will be announced later.

HDR Lyngdoh, fondly known as ‘maheh’, had been part and parcel of the government of Meghalaya for the last decade and was set to contest again in the upcoming elections after a gap of 5 years. He was considered a strong contender for the Sohiong seat, having retained the seat for 3 consecutive terms from 2003 to 2018. He lost the 2018 election by a margin of just 622 votes against Samlin Malngiang.

His sudden passing has sent shockwaves through the local political scene. As a result of Lyngdoh’s untimely death, the election commission has decided to postpone the election.

The Chief Electoral Officer of Meghalaya, Frederick Roy Kharkongor informed, “As we received the news of the demise of the contesting candidate, shri HDR from Sohiong Constituency we immediately sought a report from the District Election Officer and from the Returning Officer (RO), and the RO has sent a report to the District Election Officer and we have also received the report from the District Election Officer enclosing the report of the RO, wherein it was stated that Shri HDR Lyngdoh has passed away.”

“In such cases, the RO usually recommends for an adjournment of the poll and this recommendation has been forwarded to the Election Commission and now the Election Commission will issue perhaps the new date for holding of the elections in this one constituency. But I must highlight here that elections in the 59 constituencies will still go on (as scheduled),” he added.