2008 Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election

The previous elections to the 7th Meghalaya Legislative Assembly 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. Elections in all polling stations were held using EVMs.^[4]

After the 2003 elections to the 7th Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, the INC led MDA 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 S. S. Sidhu, who administered the oath of office on behalf of Governor M. M. Jacob who was on leave.^[5][6] 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 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.^[7][8] This time Lapang held onto the post until the completion of the term of the 7th Meghalaya Assembly.

In this election the INC was battling not just the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but also its former MDA partners UDP and MDP. In addition, the NCP, a United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partner at the Centre, was also contesting against the INC in Meghalaya. Under the leadership of P. A. Sangma (who gave up national politics in favour of state politics before the elections^[9]), 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.^[10]

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.^[11]

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 area of the state.^[12]

Voter turnout of 89.05% was a record for the state. High voter turnout was reported from almost all rural constituencies.^[13] Voter turnout for the Baghmara seat on 22 Mar 2008 was 88.50%.^[14] Combined voter turnout across the state was 89.44%.^[15]

More information Party, Seats contested ...

Performance of the political parties in this election

Party	Seats contested	Seats won	No. of Votes	% of Votes	% in Seats contested	Seats Forfeited	2003 Seats
Bharatiya Janata Party	23	1	29,465	2.71%	7.04%	21
Communist Party of India	3	0	282	0.03%	0.53%	3
Indian National Congress	59	25	357,113	32.88%	32.88%	9
Nationalist Congress Party	49	14	221,341	20.38%	24.32%	15
Lok Janshakti Party	18	0	6,827	0.63%	2.02%	18
Meghalaya Democratic Party	18	0	30,691	2.83%	8.82%	15
United Democratic Party	53	11	201,976	18.37%	20.49%	21
Garo National Council	4	0	4,081	0.38%	6.65%	3
Hill State People's Democratic Party	15	2	42,235	3.89%	13.97%	10
Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement	16	1	48,833	4.50%	16.88%	9
Independents	73	5	143,122	13.18%	25.22%	55
Total	331	59	1,085,966			179

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^[16] Note: The above results are only for 59 seats. The results of Baghmara constituency is not included as elections in Baghmara were postponed.