Congress eyes comeback in Shillong Lok Sabha seat

A beleaguered Congress is hoping to put its electoral debacle in Assam behind it and get back to winning ways in the Northeastern region, once its happy hunting ground.

On Thursday (May 14, 2026), the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee approved the name of its president, Vincent H. Pala, as the party’s candidate for the upcoming by-election to the Shillong Lok Sabha seat.

Mr. Pala represented the constituency for 15 years before Ricky Andrew J. Syngkon of the Voice of the People Party (VPP) defeated him in the 2024 polls by a margin of more than 3.71 lakh votes. The seat fell vacant following Syngkon’s death on February 19, after collapsing while playing football on the outskirts of Shillong.

Expected by August

Chief Electoral Officer B.D.R. Tiwari said that his department was prepared and waiting for the schedule to be announced by the Election Commission. The by-election is expected by August.

“The district and block-level leaders have proposed my name as the candidate. The proposal will be sent to our party’s central leadership for a final decision,” Mr. Pala said, hoping to wrest the Shillong seat where Congress enjoyed a 26-year run from 1998 to 2024.

An engineer-turned-politician, he served as a Union Minister from 2009 to 2012.

The VPP has named academician Batskhem Myrboh as its candidate for the constituency. At the same time, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP) has nominated scholar and president of the Khasi Authors’ Society, D.R.L. Nonglait.

Two other parties, the United Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, have not yet decided whether or not to contest the by-election. Both are constituents of the NPP-led ruling coalition in Meghalaya.

Once the dominant political entity, Congress is battling for its survival in Meghalaya. The party won five of the 60 Assembly seats in the State in 2023, but four of them defected to the NPP, while the fifth—Saleng A. Sangma—became an MP after winning the Tura Lok Sabha seat the following year.