Shillong, Aug 18: The West Garo Hills district administration on Saturday reviewed the law and order and security plans for the bye election to South Tura which has as many as 18 vulnerable polling stations out of 36.
South Tura will go to bye elections along with Ranikor constituency on August 23, and the counting of votes will take place on August 27.

South Tura and Ranikor got four companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) each for conducting the bye elections.

“We reviewed the security and law and order situation ahead of the bye election to South Tura along with officials from the state police and CAPF,” West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner, Ram Singh said, after he chaired the meeting at Multi Facility Centre, District Rural Development Agency, Tura.

The meeting was attended by CAPF officials including Inspector-General of CRPF from Shillong, DIG (law and order) Western Range, and other district officials.

Stating that the situation is good in South Tura, the DC said that issues like security plans especially deployment of CAPF personnel, and small issues like transportation and other logistics were discussed during the review meeting.

He also said that getting four companies of CAPF for conducting the bye election in one constituency is sufficient.

The campaign for the bye election will conclude on August 21 at 4 pm, 48 hours prior to the polling. The polling will be held on August 23 from 7 am to 5 pm.

The bye election to South Tura constituency is considered “high profile” with the Chief Minister, Conrad Kongkal Sangma joining the fray as it is mandatory for him to get elected as member of the tenth Meghalaya Legislative Assembly in order to continue as Chief Minister.

Out of 36 polling booths, South Tura has 18 vulnerable polling booths.

Besides the Chief Minister, the other candidates in the fray include opposition Congress nominee, Charlotte W. Momin, and two Independent candidates – former South Tura MLA, John Leslee K. Sangma, and Chris Kabul.

Conrad, who is still the Lok Sabha MP from Tura, is also the NPP national president.

South Tura has 30440 voters which include 14,966 male voters, and 15474 female voters.

There are also 37 service voters, and 35 persons with disabilities (PwDs) voters.

The polling station with highest number of voters is Matchakolgre Community Hall (1337 voters) and the polling station with lowest voters is Leper Colony (151 voters).

An all women polling station has been set up Upper Babupara (L.G.B. Higher Secondary School), and two model polling stations – Tura Govt. College (Room No. 1 Separate building) and Tura Govt. College (Room No. 2 Separate building). The PwD model polling station is Leper Colony L.P. School