Shillong Feb 27: Meghalaya deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong will head the sub-committee formed by the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) to select the candidate for the election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state.

The MDA is a coalition of various political parties and wanted to field its candidate for Rajya Sabha election to be held on March 26 as the term of the second time Rajya Sabha member, Wansuk Syiem is expiring on April 12.

The MDA meeting held at Hotel Pinewood on Thursday night was attended by MLAs of the MDA government and leaders of various parties supporting the MDA government.

Chief minister, Conrad K Sangma told reporters that the meeting has discussed certain agendas which include the upcoming budget session of the state Assembly and how to prepare for it, and the need to put up a candidate of the ruling MDA for the Rajya Sabha election.

The budget session of the state Assembly will start on March 13.

“All MLAs and leaders of parties which are part the MDA participated in the discussion about the Rajya Sabha election and decided that whatever the case may be, the MDA will be united and will have only one candidate. But prior to that, discussion must take place at different levels,” Conrad said.

With Tynsong (NPP) as chairman of the Sub Committee, other members include from the UDP, PDF, NCP, BJP, HSPDP and Independents.

“The sub-committee will sit on Monday and take forward the discussion. We are hopeful that by Monday, we should be able to come up with the name of our candidate,” the chief minister said.

Whether NPP Meghalaya president, W R Kharlukhi will emerge as the candidate, Conrad said that certain names were discussed during the meeting, but did not reveal the names.