By Barun Das Gupta
Assembly polls in Manipur were held on February 28. Even the re-poll in thirty booths of eleven constituencies are over. Who has won and who has lost will be known early next month. But whoever wins or loses, it is the voters of Manipur who have won hands down. They have ignored the threats held out by CorCom, the apex body of seven extremist and secessionist organizations, and turned out at the polling booths in huge numbers.
Election Commission sources at Imphal said polling was as high as eighty-two per cent. The extremists did indulge in violence. Bombs were thrown, party-offices raided and some security forces personnel killed. But the voters could not be daunted. They were firm in their resolve to exercise their democratic right.
This time the Congress decided to go it alone, parting company with its decade-old poll ally, the CPI. The MPCC bosses are confident they are going to win a comfortable majority on their own. The five Opposition parties – the Manipur People’s Party (MPP), NCP, CPI-M, JD(U) and RJD – fought together in the name of People’s Democratic Front (PDF). But MPP, the major constituent of the PDF, had a separate ‘understanding’ with the BJP. They decided not to field candidates against each other. The CPI-M had to acquiesce in this arrangement. Incidentally, the MPP is contesting less seats (14) than the BJP (19).
The dark horse in the Manipur polls this time is the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Without any party organization worth the name, the TMC has set up forty-eight candidates, second only to Congress’ sixty. Party supremo Mamata Banerjee addressed a poll meeting at Imphal. The turnout was impressive because many wanted to see the lady who had taken on and defeated the mighty CPI-M in West Bengal singlehanded. But most observers believe the TMC is not a serious contender and is not likely to win more than four or five seats. What prompted the TMC to field so many candidates, they think, was to increase its percentage of votes polled as a step to getting the party recognized by the Election Commission as a national party.
The Congress, expectedly, emphasized on development and political stability. Chief Minister Okhram Ibobi Singh and others pointed out the progress made by the State in the last ten years of uninterrupted Congress rule. However, the Opposition made the demand for the withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA its main electoral plank.
The Act gives legal immunity to members of the security forces against prosecution while acting against terrorists. This law has been a sore point with the Manipuris as elsewhere in the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir. The PDF made the withdrawal of the AFSPA its main campaign issue. Mamata Banerjee, too, assured the people of Manipur that if voted to power, she would ask the Centre to withdraw the Act from the State.
Most observers think the Congress will be returned to power with a comfortable majority for the third consecutive time. In a worst case scenario, it will emerge as the single largest party and form the government with the help of some smaller parties like its traditional ally, the CPI. For the first time in a decade the CPI this time has been forced to fall back on its own strength. The party has a band of dedicated workers and traditional bases. Its solo performance this time is being closely observed.
The polls this time also saw an interesting cat-and-mouse game that some parties played with the Election Commission. The poll panel fixed Rs. 8 lakh as the ceiling of expenditure for a candidate. The Commission’s observers kept a sharp eye on the expenditures that the parties and their candidates were making.
But some parties hit upon a novel idea to make huge expenditures to woo voters or influential persons evading the vigilant eyes of the Commission. They threw lavish banquets and organized entertainment programmes ostensibly to celebrate birthday parties. The candidates and their close aides were conspicuously absent from these bashes but the message was conveyed all the same by others and in a not too subtle way. There were instances of offering cash to voters.
This is nothing unusual in Manipur. Years ago, this scribe was accompanying a minister during the poll campaign. At a small village, a very old man who had already had his fill of the local brew, marched up to the minister, spat before him and demanded to know ‘What happened to my ten rupees that you had promised last time ? This time, no money, no vote.’ The sheepish-looking minister meekly fished out a tenner from his pocket and offered to the man. Then, turning to this scribe, he said: ‘You can’t help it. This is Manipur.’ Indeed! (IPA Service)