Manipur elections: 38 seats to go to polls in first phase today, 173 candidates in fray

Lamphelpat (Manipur): As many as 38 constituencies spread across five districts including Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Churachandpur, and Kangpokpi will go to polls in the first phase of Manipur Assembly elections on Monday. A total of 173 candidates, including 15 females, are in the fray for the poll scheduled for tomorrow. As per the Chief Electoral Officer of Manipur, Rajesh Agarwal, out of the total candidates, 39 candidates have criminal antecedents. 

Party-wise, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded 38 contestants, while 35 are in the fray from the Indian National Congress. Janata Dal (United) has contested 28 candidates. "A total of 12,09,439 voters including 5,80,607 male, 6,28,657 female and 175 transgender voters are in Phase-I who will exercise their franchise across 1,721 polling stations. There are a total of 10,041 PwD electors and 251 centenarian voters in these 38 assembly constituencies," Agrawal informed. 

Voting will begin at 7 am and will continue till 4 pm. The voters who are COVID positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour, between 3 pm to 4 pm. Notably, 381 polling stations will be completely manned by all-women polling personnel, while one polling station in Saikot will be manned completely by Person with Disability (PwD) polling personnel. 

It has also been informed that since the Election Commission of India (ECI) has discontinued Photo Voter Slip as an identity proof, voters shall require to produce one of the 12 identity documents approved by the Commission, including Aadhaar Card, MNREGA Job Card, Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank/Post Office, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, Driving License, PAN Card etc. 

The high-octane poll campaigning in Manipur came to an end on Saturday. Elections for the 60-member Manipur Assembly will take place in two phases on February 28 and March 5. As many as 38 seats will go to the polls in the first phase while voting in 22 constituencies will take place in the second phase.

The BJP formed the government in Manipur in 2017 with the support of the National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, this time the BJP decided to go solo and is contesting all 60 seats alone. On the other hand, Congress has formed an alliance of six political parties and named it Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance (MPSA). The coalition partners in MPSA include Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Janata Dal (Secular).

In the 2017 Manipur Assembly elections, Congress emerged as the single largest party winning 28 seats followed by the BJP which settled with 21 seats. The National People's Party (NPP) and Naga People's Front (NPF) bagged four seats each while the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) managed to secure only one constituency. BJP bagged 36.28 per cent vote share while Congress received 35.11 per cent of the total vote. Later, BJP stitched a coalition with the NPP, NPF and LJP to form the government under the leadership of Biren Singh.