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Manipur is set to elect its representatives to the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly in two phases – first on February 27 and second on March 3, 2022. The counting of votes for Manipur’s 60-member State Legislative Assembly will take place on March 10, as per the Election Commission of India (ECI) notification. While the verdict of the poll is a million dollar question, what is crystal clear is that the Manipur General Assembly Election 2022 is turning out to be like no other that the state has ever witnessed.
POWER DYNAMICS
For one, the power equation has changed so dramatically.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), from being a party that no candidate had earlier dared to be seen seeking to be elected on after a revivalist, Meitei extremist group imposed a blanket banned on it, to being one member in the 6th Manipur Legislative Assembly (1995) to securing 21 seats and then increasing its strength to 30 MLAs in the course of the five year term in the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly (2017), to being the ultimate choice of most of the aspiring candidates for the 12 Manipur State Legislative Assembly, it has come a long way. There isn’t an iota of doubt that it is the moment of the BJP.
For the Congress, which once had none to challenge its sway in state politics is almost a spent force after the debacle it went through at the hands of the BJP. After being the single largest party, winning 28 seats, when the poll results were declared in March 2017, the BJP, which won only 21, outsmarted the Congress and formed a coalition government by joining hands with smaller parties – National People’s Party (NPP) and Naga People’s Front (NPF), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Trinamool Congress – and securing an allegiance of an independent representative and a Congress MLA making the later a cabinet minister. Over the course of the five years’ term, the Congress had lost, in succession, at least 16 of its MLAs while the strength of the BJP in the assembly swelled to 30 seats.
Today, the Congress is making a last ditch effort to win votes in the 2022 polls by aligning with the left, forming a pre-poll alliance with five left and secular parties, namely Communist Party of India (CPI), Community Party of India (Marxist) {CPI (M)}, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Janata Dal (S), {JDS} and the Forward Block.
PRE POLL VIOLENCE
Since the beginning of electoral politics in the state, rivalries between opposing candidates have never been fatal. Unfortunately, in the run up to the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly Election, 2022, political rivalry has resulted in violent clashes, even claiming the lives of a few ‘foot soldiers’. Heirok Assembly Constituency in Thoubal district is turning out to be the stage where this political rivalry has manifested in its worst form.
To read the further articles please get your copy of Eastern Panorama February issue @http://www.magzter.com/IN/Hill-Publications/Eastern-Panorama/News/ or mail to contact @easternpanorama.in
