Shillong, March 13: The AICC today cleared the name of former Union minister Vincent H. Pala as the Congress nominee for Shillong Lok Sabha constituency, which is scheduled to go to polls on April 9.

The Congress also cleared the name of Daryl William Cheran Momin, the grandson of Meghalaya’s first chief minister Captain Williamson A. Sangma, for the Tura parliamentary seat.

The first list, published last Saturday, had the name of Meghalaya sports minister Zenith M. Sangma as the candidate from Tura but state Congress leaders had pointed out that it was an error.

Pala, who was a Union minister of state in the ministry of water resources and minority affairs, had won the 2009 elections with a record margin.

With today’s announcement, the Shillong parliamentary seat has three contenders so far. Apart from Pala, the other contenders are United Democratic Party (UDP) working president and legislator Paul Lyngdoh and Common People’s Front (CPF) nominee Rev. P.B.M. Basaiawmoit.

From the Tura seat, former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Agitok Sangma will seek a return to national politics on a National People’s Party ticket. The veteran politician had fought his last parliamentary election in 2006.