Imphal, Mar 4: The campaigning for second phase of the Manipur Assembly elections came to an end on Thursday afternoon, after a two-month long hustle of hectic poll campaigns. The balloting in the state would be held on Saturday for 22 of the 60 seats in the six districts.
Election Officials said that more than three hundred companies of Central para military forces have been deployed in the second phase in Thoubal, Jiribam, Chandel, Ukhrul, Senapati and Tamenglong districts where the elections will be held on Saturday.
Thoubal town falls in the valley areas of Manipur while the other five districts fall in the mountainous areas bordering Myanmar, Assam and Nagaland, putting the security forces on the highest vigil along the international and the inter-state borders.
According to the election officials, in all 8,47,400 voters including 4,28,968 women electors would cast their votes in 1,247 polling stations to decide the electoral fate of 92 candidates including two women.
The election officials said that mandatory sanitisation of the polling stations was done in all the six districts as part of a series of measures implemented to execute a Covid-safe election.
Saturday’s balloting would settle the electoral fortunes of former three time (2002-2017) Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and several other BJP government’s ministers and sitting MLAs.
The 74-year-old Congress veteran, Singh, is contesting from the Thoubal assembly seat in the Thoubal district and he is locked in a four-corner contest against BJP’s Leitanthem Basanta Singh, Janata Dal (United) candidate Irom Chaoba Singh and Shiv Sena’s Konsam Michael Singh.
The main opposition, Congress, did not field candidates in four of the 22 assembly seats — Chandel, Mao, Tadubi, Tamenglong. Political analysts believe that the party is tacitly supporting the candidates of National People’s Party (NPP), headed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma.
Over the two-month long campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP President J.P. Nadda, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his Tripura counterpart Biplab Kumar Deb, NPP supremo Conrad K. Sangma, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rajya Sabha Member Jairam Ramesh took part for their respective party candidates’ rallies.
The BJP, which had bagged 21 seats in the 60-member assembly in 2017, wrested power for the first time, stitching together a coalition government with the support of four NPP MLAs, four Naga People’s Front (NPF) members, the lone Trinamool Congress MLA and an Independent member. However, this time the BJP, NPP and the NPF are contesting separately and put-up candidates against each other.
The NPP, being the dominant party of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, has been an ally of the BJP in both the northeastern states (Meghalaya and Manipur) since 2017, has put up 12 candidates while the BJP fielded in all the 22 seats in the second phase of elections.
Congress, which governed the state for 15 consecutive years (2002-2017), emerged as the single largest party by securing 28 seats in 2017 poll, this time has formed a Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance (MPSA) after forging a pre-poll alliance with four Left parties and Janata Dal-Secular.
The first phase of polling was held in 38 seats on February 28, where 88.63 per cent of the total of 12,09,439 voters exercised their franchise.
