Shillong, June 28 : The Hill State Peoples’ Democratic Party (HSPDP) supremo Hopingstone Lyngdoh today followed suit by pledging support to the son of the soil, Purno Agitok Sangma, in the battle for Raisina Hill, after United Democratic Party (UDP) president Donkupar Roy made his personal preference clear on the presidential polls.

Yesterday, while stating that the UDP parliamentary party was yet to meet on the presidential polls, Roy had said in his personal capacity he would support the Garo hills strongman against UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee.

Lyngdoh today said he had received a letter from chief minister Mukul M. Sangma requesting him and his party to support Mukherjee in the July 19 elections.

“I will support Sangma since he is from here. If he wins the election, it would be easier for me to relate the problems afflicting our state,” the veteran politician from West Khasi Hills said.

Lyngdoh and Sangma had entered Parliament together for the first time in 1977.

Sangma was elected from Tura as a Congress candidate, while Lyngdoh won the Shillong seat on a HSPDP ticket.

The HSPDP chief had then defeated stalwarts like Peter Garnette Marbaniang, George Gilbert Swell and Patty Ripple Kyndiah.

The former Lok Sabha Speaker, on the other hand, defeated Moody K. Marak of the then All Party Hill Leaders Conference.

The UDP, with 10 legislators, and the HSPDP with two representatives, are part of the Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) led by the Congress. The state has a total of 59 out of 60 legislators, after Sangma had resigned from the Assembly last week to enter the presidential fray as an Independent candidate.

From 2008 to 2009, Roy, Lyngdoh and Sangma had worked together under the then Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) government.

Among the northeastern states, while vote value of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram is only eight each, the vote value of a legislator of Manipur is 18, that of Meghalaya is 17, Nagaland nine and Tripura 26.

The states of the region, including Sikkim, share the least votes in the presidential election because of the small size of the Legislative Assemblies and limited number of MPs from the region.

According to the provisions of Article 55(2) of the Constitution, in the presidential polls, the vote value of a legislator is determined by the population of the 1971 census.