The Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election of 2008 took place in a single phase on 3 March 2008 to elect the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from each of the 60 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) in Meghalaya, India. Counting of votes happened on 7 March 2008 and because of the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in this election, the results were ready within the day. The ruling coalition Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) had broken apart in the lead-up to this election, forcing the main partner Indian National Congress (INC) to take on their erstwhile partners including United Democratic Party (UDP) and Meghalaya Democratic Party (MDP) who had decided to fight against the

INC Inc. or inc may refer to: * Incorporation (business), as a suffix indicating a corporation * ''Inc.'' (magazine), an American business magazine * Inc. No World, a Los Angeles-based band * Indian National Congress, a political party in India * I ...

on the basis on corruption charges against the incumbent Government. The election provided a hung verdict and both the incumbent

and the post-election coalition of

NCP NCP may refer to: Science and medicine * Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (a temporary name for COVID-19), an outbreak that was officially identified in late 2019. * HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein 7 (NCp7), a target of zinc finger inhibitors * Nucleosome ...

- UDP (who called themselves the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) staked claim with the Governor of Meghalaya M.M. Jacob to form the next

Government of Meghalaya The Government of Meghalaya also known as the State Government of Meghalaya, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Meghalaya and its 11 districts. It consists of an executive, led by the Governor of Meghalaya, a judiciary a ...

. By virtue of being the single largest party in this election, winning 25 of the total 60 seats, the incumbent

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

D. D. Lapang of the

was invited by the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

to form the new Government on 10 March 2008. However, the Lapang Government was unable to get enough support in the

Meghalaya Legislative Assembly The Meghalaya Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Meghalaya. Constituted as a directly elected body in 1972, it has 60 members, filled through direct elections held e ...

and the Chief Minister resigned 9 days later ahead of the

vote of confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

scheduled for 20 March 2008. The Governor then invited the head of the UDP

Donkupar Roy Donkupar Roy (10 November 1954 – 28 July 2019) was an Indian politician, who served as Chief Minister of Meghalaya. He was the head of the United Democratic Party (Meghalaya), United Democratic Party, a political party recognised in Meghalaya ...

to form the Government with the support of the

MPA MPA or mPa may refer to: Academia Academic degrees * Master of Performing Arts * Master of Professional Accountancy * Master of Public Administration * Master of Public Affairs Schools * Mesa Preparatory Academy * Morgan Park Academy * Mound ...

coalition who claimed support of 31 of the 60 seats in the Assembly. This included 14 seats from

, 11 from UDP, 2 from Hill State People's Democratic Party(HPDP), 1 from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 1 from Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) and 2 independents

Background

The previous elections to the 7th

was held in 2003 and the term for this Assembly was set to expire on 10 March 2008. Hence, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced fresh elections to the 8th Meghalaya Legislative Assembly on 14 January 2008. Of the 60 ACs in Tripura, 55 are reserved for

Scheduled Tribes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

. Elections in all

polling station A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English and British English, although polling place is the building

s were held using EVMs. After the 2003 elections to the 7th Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, the

led

MDA MDA, mda, or ''variation'', may refer to: Places * Moldova, a country in Europe with the ISO 3166-1 country code MDA Politics * Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (2018), ruling coalition government in the Indian State of Meghalaya led by National Pe ...

formed the Government under the leadership of INC's D. D. Lapang. The members of the MDA were INC (22 seats), UDP (9 seats), Meghalaya Democratic Party (MDP) (4 seats) and 3 independents. By 2006, Lapang faced revolt within the INC and the party took the decision to replace him as the Chief Minister. On 15 June 2006, Lapang resigned and his protégé J. D. Rymbai was sworn in as the new Chief Minister by the

Governor of Manipur The governor of Manipur is the nominal head and representative of the president of India in the state of Manipur. The governor is appointed by the president for a term of five years. The current and 17th governor of Manipur is La. Ganesan from A ...

S. S. Sidhu, who administered the oath of office on behalf of Governor M. M. Jacob who was on leave. However, the conflict within the INC did not end there and both Lapang and Rymbai continued to claim majority support among the Congress Legislative Party (CLP). After 8 months in control of the Government, Rymbai was asked by the

Congress high command The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is the executive committee of the Indian National Congress. It was formed in December 1920 at Nagpur session of INC which was headed by C. Vijayaraghavachariar. It typically consists of fifteen members electe ...

to resign. Lapang was reelected as the leader of the Meghalaya CLP and was reinstated as Chief Minister by Governor M. M. Jacob on 10 March 2007. This time Lapang held onto the post until the completion of the term of the 7th Meghalaya Assembly.

Campaign

In this election the

was battling not just the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but also its former

partners UDP and MDP. In addition, the

, a United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partner at the

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, was also contesting against the INC in Meghalaya. Under the leadership of

P. A. Sangma Purno Agitok Sangma (1 September 1947 – 4 March 2016) was an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990 and Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998. He was the candidate for the 2012 Indian presidentia ...

(who gave up national politics in favour of state politics before the elections), the NCP was expected to provide the most stiff competition to the INC. Elections in the constituency of Baghmara were postponed to 22 March 2008 on count of the death of the sitting INC MLA S. Sangma. A total of 331 candidates contested the remaining 59 seats up for election. Romgram had the toughest fight with 11 contestants, while Jaiaw had only 2 contestants.

Election Day

Election Day (3 March 2008) was largely peaceful across the state. However, there was one incident of violence that claimed the life of an INC worker when clashes broke out between supporters of INC & NCP at Selsella in the

Garo Hills The Garo Hills (Pron: ˈgɑ:rəʊ) are part of the Garo-Khasi range in Meghalaya, India. They are inhabited by the Garo people. It is one of the wettest places in the world. The range is part of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion. De ...

area of the state.

Voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...

of 89.05% was a record for the state. High voter turnout was reported from almost all rural constituencies. Voter turnout for the Baghmara seat on 22 Mar 2008 was 88.50%. Combined voter turnout across the state was 89.44%.

Results

http://www.eci.gov.in/StatisticalReports/SE2008/StatReport2008_MG.pdf Note: The above results are only for 59 seats. The results of Baghmara constituency is not included as elections in Baghmara were postponed.

Elected Members

References

External links

Election Commission of India

Government of Meghalaya

Meghalaya Legislative Assembly
{{Meghalaya elections 2008 State Assembly elections in India State Assembly elections in Meghalaya 2000s in Meghalaya