Shillong, Dec 29 (PTI) The Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee on Thursday cleared the first list of 40 candidates for the 2023 state Assembly elections.

Assembly elections in Meghalaya are due early next year.

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Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president and Shillong MP Vincent H Pala said the Pradesh Election Committee (MEC) cleared the list but the names will be approved and announced from Delhi.

The prominent names in the list include Pala, former DSP turned chairman of the disbanded Garo terrorist outfit - Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), Champion R Sangma, former MLAs Dr Celestine Lyngdoh, J Antonius Lyngdoh, Deborah Marak, Billykid A Sangma, Edmund S Sangma, Sayeedullah Nongrum, Rophul S Marak and Brigady Napak Marak.

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The list has names of 10 former legislators and seven women candidates. As many as 30 of the 40 candidates are fresh faces who will be contesting the elections for the first time.

Addressing media persons, Pala said the 40 candidates include 26 in Khasi and Jaintia Hills region and 14 in Garo Hills region.

"We will again sit for a meeting after a week to decide on the remaining 20 seats which include 10 in Khasi-Jaintia Hills and 10 in Garo Hills," he said.

"We only cleared the list but the names will be approved and announced from Delhi," he added.

Stating that 20 per cent of the candidates are women, Pala said, "I am proud to inform that there are 8 women candidates and some of them are highly qualified and hard working. None of the political parties will have so many ladies (in their respective lists)."

The MPCC president who is also an engineer by profession, said that six engineers and eight persons who have completed their masters and Ph.D and one doctor also figure in the list.

Pala said the party will send its observers to constituencies that are having multiple candidates in Garo Hills to find out the winnability candidates.

"We don't want to give ticket to anybody who is closed to me or to us but we should be fair to all ticket aspirants. We have three observers to go to those areas where we cannot decide today and we will decide only after getting the report of the observers," he said.

The Congress had 17 MLAs but 12 of them switched over to the All India Trinamool Congress making it the principal Opposition party. The remaining five were later suspended for anti-party activities.

Meanwhile, suspended MLA Kimfa Marbaniang has tendered his resignation to Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh on Wednesday.

His resignation letter was accepted by the Speaker, Assembly officials said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)