Manipur, where two phases of polling are due on 28th February and 5th March, as anticipated has received scant attention from the media obsessed with Uttar Pradesh polls. But Manipur is an important border state, with a troubled past and an intriguing present. Congress, the dominant party till the counting day in 2017, had emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats. But BJP, with 21 seats, was invited by the then Governor Najma Heptulla to prove its majority. It successfully manufactured a majority and formed the government. This time around, Manipur elections can be broken down into two separate battlefields. First, the 40 general category seats in the Imphal Valley and areas bordering Assam. These seats are dominated by Meiteis, the dominant community of the state. It is a two cornered fight for these seats between Congress and the BJP. Second, the 20 reserved seats in the hills, dominated by Nagas and Kukis. It’s a triangular fight for the reserved seats, between Congress, National People’s Party (NPP) led by Conrad Sangma and Naga People’s Front or NPF, led by Neiphiu Rio till 2018. It’s currently led by TR Zeiliang. BJP, NPP and NPF, constituents of the ruling NEDA, are contesting these elections separately. Congress on the other hand is fighting in alliance with the Left and a few minor parties. The campaign did see violence, which went mostly unreported in the national media. There have been allegations of banned outfits lending their muscle to BJP’s campaign. These allegations were levelled by NPP. But significantly they stopped short of filing a written complaint to the EC.
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