Jaintia district council chief voted out of office

In a political development, Hambertus Nongtdu was voted out as Chief Executive Member of the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) on Monday. In the 29-member JHADC, Nongtdu got 10 votes as 17 voted against him. He was heading a Congress-led Jaintia Democratic Alliance (JDA) coalition Executive Committee.

JHADC had 19 Congress MDCs followed by the United Democratic Party with eight and Meghalaya Democratic Party with one. The three parties together formed the JDA.

The intriguing part is that the opposition member, Moonlight Pariat, brought a no-confidence motion against Nongtdu. JHADC chairman Edmund Lyngdoh admitted the motion and called for a headcount. However, he later instructed that the voting should be done through a secret ballot. Lyngdoh declared that Nongtdu had been defeated as 17 MDCs voted against him.