Former India international footballer Eugeneson Lyngdoh has decided to contest the by-election from Mawphlang constituency on a United Democratic Party (UDP) ticket.
The 35-year-old will thus try to fill the seat that was left vacant after his father, SK Sunn, the incumbent MLA, passed away on September 10.
Lyngdoh was officially inducted into the UDP on Thursday during a meeting in his home at Mawngap in the presence of party president Metbah Lyngdoh and Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui. Sunn had been an independent MLA but had become an ‘associate member’ of the UDP following his election in 2018.
Addressing his supporters, Lyngdoh said that the decision to contest the by-election was with the intention to follow up the pending work of his late father in Mawphlang assembly constituency that he had started in the last three and a half years.
Commenting on the supporters’ insistence that he should contest the by-election, Lyngdoh said, “I feel they see in me the capability to carry forward the works which was started by my late father.”
He also said that he had full confidence in the leaders of the UDP.
Lyngdoh had been pursuing a degree in engineering but quit it to focus on his football career. He has played for local clubs Shillong Lajong and Rangdajied United but became nationally famous in his time at domestic champions Bengaluru FC. He has since played, with less success for FC Pune City, ATK and East Bengal in the Indian Super League. Lyngdoh had made history by becoming one of the first footballers to go for Rs 1 crore in the ISL auction in 2017 but his career was hit hard by injury and last season he was dropped from East Bengal after just two games.
