Imphal, Jan 27: Ahead of Manipur Assembly polls, the Manipur Pradesh Congress is planning a Goa type ‘firewall’ whereby party candidates will have to take an ‘oath of allegiance’ to the party even after the by-poll results. The party is doing this to create a ‘moral obligation’ for the candidates not to switch over to other parties after polls. In 2017 Assembly polls, the Manipur Congress was single largest party with 28 MLAs, however, in five years time as many as 16 party MLAs have joined the BJP.

The BJP in Manipur, on the other hand, is dealing with the problem of plenty – in about 40 seats out of total 60 in the state, BJP has 3-4 strong ‘intending candidates’ – thus the party has already organised a series of ‘sensitization’ meeting with the intending candidates constituency wise to bring about an ‘agreement’ between the intending candidates of not ‘sabotaging’ the prospects of the candidate who finally gets the ticket and to cooperate.

Also, security around BJP headquarters in Manipur’s capital Imphal has been increased since last night. BJP is likely to release its 1st list of candidates for Manipur on Thursday.

Tight security is in place in all trouble prone areas despite politicians seeking BJP ticket in each constituency having pledged to support the selected candidates, Manipur BJP sources said.

Mentionably, in Goa, the Congress got its candidates to take an oath that they will never ditch the party after getting elected.