Indian National Congress won the most seats in Meghalaya, but did not end up leading the next government.

It took 21 of the 60 seats.

That was 28.3% of the vote, but still short of the 31-seat majority mark.

The National Peoples Party followed closely, with 19 seats on 20.3% of the vote.

Ahead of the vote, the United Democratic Party and Hill State People's Democratic Party formed a pre-poll alliance in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills, with the United Democratic Party also tying up with the Garo Hills-based Garo National Council.¹

Weeks later, five Congress MLAs, including former deputy chief minister Rowell Lyngdoh, resigned from the assembly, and on 4 January they and three other former MLAs formally joined the National People's Party at a Shillong rally.²

The Election Commission then set the poll for 27 February, with counting on 3 March, alongside Nagaland and Tripura.³

During the campaign, the National People's Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party promised to relax a ban on rat-hole coal mining within months of taking power. On 18 February, Nationalist Congress Party candidate Jonathone Nengminza Sangma was killed in an IED blast in East Garo Hills while returning from campaigning, and polling in his own seat, Williamnagar, was deferred.⁴⁵

NPEP ended up leading the next government instead.

NPEP formed a coalition with the United Democratic Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party and other regional parties, and Conrad Sangma was sworn in as Chief Minister.⁶

INC still finished as the largest single party, extending its own run at the top to 9 elections in a row.

Across the state, 11 of 46 seats changed hands, the single biggest share moving from INC to NPEP.

The tightest finish was at Nongstoin, Meghalaya, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of 60 votes.

East Shillong, Meghalaya was the most lopsided contest, with the winner ahead by 35.3% of the vote.

Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — was highest at Mowkaiaw, Meghalaya, reaching 94.3%.

It was lowest at North Shillong, Meghalaya, at 69.7%.

Mawlai, Meghalaya was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 42,664 on its rolls.

NOTA — None of the Above, a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — drew 0.9% of the vote statewide.

Meghalaya became a separate state on 21 January 1972, carved from Assam's Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills districts, and its first Assembly election followed weeks later with the All Party Hill Leaders Conference winning an outright majority.⁷

The Hill State People's Democratic Party had formed earlier still, in 1968, as a split from the All Party Hill Leaders Conference campaigning for a separate hill state, and it has contested every Meghalaya election since the first one.⁸

Party founder P A Sangma had left the Nationalist Congress Party in 2013 to start the National People's Party. It grew from a minor player into the lead partner of the state's governing coalition from 2018.⁹