Shillong: The campaign for Meghalaya Assembly elections first came to light with a controversy over a jacket worn by Congress president Rahul Gandhi during a musical event in Shillong. But as the elections got nearer, the bickering faded and political bigwigs took the centrestage making all attempts to woo the voters.
 
The polling was for the 60-seat Meghalaya Assembly was held on February 27 and now the stage is set for counting of votes. Of the 60 Assembly seats in Meghalaya, as many as 55 seats in the state are reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
 
Meghalaya has witnessed a massive voter turnout of 84.86 percent in the elections, which is lesser than the turnout in 2013 Assembly elections, which stood at 86.82 percent.
 
On February 27, voting was conducted in just 59 seats as polling in Williamnagar constituency was countermanded after NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma was killed in an IED blast just ahead of the elections.
 
Exit polls suggest that the Congress-ruled state may witness a hung assembly as the results are declared.
 
The JanKiBaat-NewsX exit poll predicted that the National People's Party (NPP) is set to gain with 23-27 seats while the BJP will get 8-12 seats. The vote share of the NPP and the BJP is likely to be around 39 and 12 percent respectively, it said.
 
The Congress is predicted to win 13-17 seats with a vote share of 21 percent and others are likely to get 2 to 6 seats.
 
Meanwhile, the CVoter exit poll predicted a close finish in Meghalaya, with the Congress likely to get 13-19 seats and the NPP 17 to 23 seats, with vote shares of 36.5 and 29.4 percent respectively.
 
The BJP in Meghalaya is likely to get 4-8 seats with a vote share of 16.6 percent, the CVoter exit poll suggested. The UDP-HSPDP is likely to bag 8-12 seats and 8.8 percent vote share, while others may get 5-9 seats and a vote share of 8.7 percent, the poll said.