Voters in several assembly constituencies represented by the ruling Congress in Meghalaya were surprised when many of them got cheques worth Rs 5,000 ahead of the next month’s elections in the state, prompting the opposition to accuse the Mukul Sangma government of wooing people with money. Many ‘luck voters’, most of them women, from Mylliem, Mawphlang and Sohiong in East Khasi Hills district rushed to the Upper Shillong branch of Bank of Baroda on Thursday to encash the cheques signed by their local block development officers (BDO).
“I was surprised to see a long queue of women who got the cheques at the bank. Some of them were not even aware why they got it,” Agnes Kharshiing, president of local NGO Civil Society Women’s Organization (CSWO), said.

Voters in several assembly constituencies represented by the ruling Congress in Meghalaya were surprised when many of them got cheques worth Rs 5,000 ahead of the next month’s elections in the state, prompting the opposition to accuse the Mukul Sangma government of wooing people with money. Many ‘luck voters’, most of them women, from Mylliem, Mawphlang and Sohiong in East Khasi Hills district rushed to the Upper Shillong branch of Bank of Baroda on Thursday to encash the cheques signed by their local block development officers (BDO).
“I was surprised to see a long queue of women who got the cheques at the bank. Some of them were not even aware why they got it,” Agnes Kharshiing, president of local NGO Civil Society Women’s Organization (CSWO), said.