After GHADC amendment, Meghalaya groups seek curbs on non-tribal voters

GUWAHATI:  

A day after he approved an amendment making a Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificate mandatory for candidates contesting the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) polls, four tribal groups have written to Meghalaya Governor Chandrashekhar H. Vijayshankar seeking similar measures to bar non-tribal people from voting in elections to tribal councils.

On March 23, Governor Vijayshankar approved the amendment to the Assam and Meghalaya Autonomous Districts Rules, 1951, barring non-tribal people from contesting the GHADC election. The GHADC governs the western half of Meghalaya, dominated by the Garo tribe.

On Tuesday (March 24, 2026), leaders of the Garo Students’ Union (GSU), the Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People, the Association of Democratic Empowerment, and the Nangrimingin A’chik Dol told the Governor in their petition that measures to make the autonomous district council polls off-limits to non-tribal people were necessary “to protect the constitutional intent of these councils”.

“Rules relevant to the tribal councils need amendment to incorporate provisions safeguarding the rights of the indigenous tribes of the Garo Hills,” GSU president Tengsak G. Momin said.

The Governor’s decision has prompted the National People’s Party-led Meghalaya government to ask two other tribal councils in the State, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC), to adopt the GHADC model, with Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong saying he would write to the two councils in this regard. 

The JHADC and KHADC govern areas where the Khasi and Jaintia communities are dominant. The Garos, Jaintias, and Khasis are the largest ethnic groups in Meghalaya, and all follow a matrilineal system.

The election to the 30-seat GHADC, scheduled for April 10, was postponed after the demand to bar non-tribal people from contesting the council polls triggered violence and arson. The violence between tribal and non-tribal groups, primarily Bengali-speaking Muslims, claimed two lives on March 9.