Security, unemployment and more: Key issues to fuel Manipur Assembly race 2022

New Delhi: The assembly elections to the five key states, including Manipur, are less than a month away and the key political players like BJP and Congress are putting their best forward to claim the throne.

While the BJP’s agenda include issues like AFSA, peace, development and migration, Congress will play on the track record of achievement between 2002-2017.

However, as Manipur gears to into polls from in dual phases on February 27 and March 3, here are the key issues that the assembly elections will be focused upon:

Internal Security

Insurgency is the most challenging issue faced by the state government with a few incidents of pre-poll violence disturbing a relatively peaceful environment in the recent past.

Seven people including Assam Rifles officer Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his wife, and their five-year-old son were killed in an ambush on November 13. On January 5, one Assam Rifles soldier was killed and another injured in a bomb blast in Thoubal district.

The key issues in the state ahead of the polls are unemployment (9.5%) the second-highest after Nagaland in the northeast, political stability, internal security, and the issue of Scheduled Tribe status for Meitei’s, who account for 57% of the state’s population, experts said.

Unemployment

Manipur has the second-highest unemployment rate in the Northeast states and thus voting trends will largely depend upon which party has to offer more on combating unemployment that in turn leads to mass migration.

Corruption

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned senior Congress leader and former Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh in connection with its FIR registered in November 2019 for alleged misappropriation of state government funds worth Rs 332 crore in June 2020, officials said.

While in December 2021, the CBI said that they have filed a case of owning disproportionate assets against a Customs Department Inspector and have initiated a probe. According to the information, the CBI received a complaint against the Inspector of Customs posted at Customs Preventive Force (CPF), Moreh, Imphal, alleging that he acquired huge wealth by alleged corruption.

Covid Mismanagement

Dr Y. Mohen, the chairman of the Manipur state chapter of the Indian Red Cross Society, said that the Manipur government was always “one step behind”. He lamented the fact that Manipur does not have a health minister to deal with the situation. L. Jayantkumar Singh, who was the health minister in the Biren Singh government, was dropped from the cabinet in September last year.

Drug Abuse

In April 2021, the Center has instructed the N Biren Singh-led government to take necessary action over the impending drug menace in the state, including the multi-crore drug haul case of Lukhosei Zou in 2018.

Withdrawal Of AFSPA

The polls have come in the wake of the Churachandpur incident on November 14, where Assam Rifles officer Col Viplav Tripathi was killed along with six others and the 14 civilian killings in neighbouring Nagaland.

Biren, too, has advocated for repealing the AFSPA from the state. The NPP and NPF have both said they will raise their voice for the repeal of AFSPA. The Congress, too, has requested Biren to take up this issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Violence

An 18-year-old college student was shot dead and his father received bullet injuries when unidentified gunmen fired at them in Manipur’s Thoubal district, police said. The incident took place on January 26.

In another poll-related killing in Manipur, police personnel and his cousin brother were shot dead by miscreants in Imphal’s west district on January 9.

Pre-poll violence has become common. Sources said this was why the polls had been split into two phases.

Water scarcity

Water scarcity is a major problem in Manipur, which is a drought-prone state. The issue of water needs to be resolved. The state also needs more connectivity to the mainland. Political issues, and not people’s issues, are at the forefront of this election. Hence, none of the politicians has touched on these problems.