United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate Balajied Synrem won the Shella bypoll, result of which was declared on Thursday.
UDP retained the seat, which was held by former Meghalaya chief minister and Assembly speaker, late Donkupar Roy, for 31 years.
Synrem is the son of Donkupar who was the president of the UDP and MLA of Shella since 1988 before his death on July 28, 2019.
Donkupar Roy’s demise caused the bypoll in the Shella Assembly constiuency.
Roy also served as the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.
Voting was held on October 21.
Synrem was leading right from the first round of counting of votes till completion of the sixth and final round.
After the 5th round of counting, the UDP candidate was leading by 5,424 votes.
Also read: Meghalaya: UDP leads in Shella by-poll counting
After the final round, Synrem, who polled 12,002 votes, defeated independent candidate Grace Mary Kharpuri by a margin of 6,221 votes.
Kharpuri, who was denied Congress ticket, fought as an independent and came second by polling 5,781 votes.
People’s Democratic Front (PDF) candidate Mosjo Wanswet came third with 4,327 votes.
Congress candidate Batyngshaiñ Ryngnga came fourth and polled only 1,715 votes.
BJP candidate Joshua Warjri came fifth by polling 742 votes.
Another independent candidate, Komen Laitmon, came last and polled 444 votes.
There were 188 voters who pressed the NOTA.
The turnout of voters in the bypoll was 84.56 per cent.
In total, 25,191 voters, out of 29,790, cast their votes
There were 12,631 male and 12,560 female voters who exercised their franchise.
With this win, the UDP has increased its strength to seven members in the 10th Meghalaya Assembly.