Shillong: National People’s Party (NPP) chief and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has expressed confidence of winning the forthcoming by-election in Meghalaya’s Sohiong constituency scheduled to be held on May 10.

The counting of votes will take place on May 13. “We are campaigning quite hard in the Sohiong area and are confident of winning the by-poll. The fact that the National People’s Party is leading the government, we are expecting of getting a good response from the people of Sohiong,” Sangma said.

Sohiong is one of the 55 seats out of the total 60 reserved for the Scheduled Tribe in the Meghalaya legislative assembly. The election to the seat was adjourned before the February 27 assembly polls following the death of one of the candidates HDR Lyngdoh of the UDP, who was also a former home minister.

The seat is currently held by Samlin Malngiang of the NPP, who won the 2018 election with a margin of over 600 votes.

On the recent merger of People’s Democratic Front (PDF) with the NPP, the chief minister said, “A lot of the people are joining NPP. The merger of PDF with NPP has given a boost to the our party.”

With the recent merger of PDF with NPP, the total of NPP MLAs has risen to 29 from 26. It has also been speculated that if NPP wins the Sohiong Assembly seat, one of the UDP cabinet ministers will be replaced by NPP MLA.