The battle lines have been drawn for the two-phase election to the 60-member Manipur Assembly with the political parties announcing their lists of candidates and forging alliances. The election is scheduled to be held on February 27 and March 3. Campaigning has picked up, with the Election Commission allowing participation of up to 1,000 people in public rallies and 20 for door-to-door campaigns. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its candidates for all the 60 seats in a single list, putting to rest speculation of any alliance with its two coalition partners—the National People’s Party (NPP) and Naga People’s Front (NPF). While the BJP aspires to secure an absolute majority, its allies are pinning their hopes on a fractured mandate for the fulfilment of their aspiration of remaining kingmakers for another term. This has kept the possible post-election permutations and combinations of alliances at the centre of the electoral discourse along with issues pushed by political parties and candidates.The opposition Congress has entered into an alliance with five Left and democratic parties, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Forward Bloc and the Janata Dal (Secular). Leaders of the six parties announced the formation of the pre-election alliance to defeat the BJP, at a joint press conference held at the office of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee on January 27.The BJP list includes the names of 11 Congress legislators, who had quit to join the saffron party. This led to protests by supporters of ticket aspirants in some of the constituencies and a spate of resignations and defections. Party hopping continued. Some BJP hopefuls who were denied the party ticket have been fielded by the Congress-led alliance. The Congress nominated Pukhrem Saratchandra Singh, the BJP legislator from Moirang constituency, who joined the Congress after he was denied the party ticket. The BJP list excludes three sitting legislators, including Saratchandra Singh. Also read: Multi-cornered contestThe Congress has announced the names of 54 candidates—40 in the first list, 10 in the second and 4 in the third. The CPI has so far nominated two candidates. The other parties in the Congress coalition have not announced the names of their candidates. The candidates nominated by the CPI and the Congress will be locked in a “friendly contest” in two constituencies.In 2007, the Congress won 30 seats and was one seat short of the magic number to form the government. The CPI, which won four seats, joined the Congress-led Secular Progressive Front government. The Left party contested 24 seats in 2012 and 6 seats in 2017 but drew a blank. The vote share of the party declined from 5.78 in 2007 to 0.74 in 2017. The Left party, however, polled 1,33,813 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in the Inner Manipur constituency. The BJP won the seat. It polled 2,63,632 votes against the Congress’ 2,45,877 votes. Inner Manipur has 32 Assembly segments in valley districts. The valley districts account for 40 Assembly seats.Prominent names in the candidates’ lists include incumbent Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and his Cabinet colleagues, and former Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Okram Ibobi Singh and his former ministerial colleagues. Ibobi Singh was Chief Minister for three consecutive terms.Immediately after the BJP announced its list, Biren Singh tweeted: “We are confident that the party is coming back to power with absolute majority to serve the people again.”High stakesBoth the BJP and the Congress have high stakes in 38 constituencies that go to the polls in the first phase on February 27. In the previous election, the BJP won 18 of the 38 seats, Congress 16, the NPP 2 and the Trinamool Congress and the Lok Jana Sakti Party 1 each. Elections for the remaining 22 constituencies will be held in the second phase on March 3. The Congress won 12 of the 22 seats in 2017, BJP won 3, the NPF 4, the NPP 2, and an independent candidate was elected from 1 constituency.
The Manipur Assembly Election: A Contest of Intelligence
