Of noises and studied silence : Diametrically opposite poll strategies
- Sangai Express Editorial :: December 20 , 2013 -

It is early days yet. It would be premature to read the tea leaves or gaze at the crystal ball, but the election wind has certainly begun to gain speed, with the State unit of the BJP seemingly leading the charge.

And not without reason, especially in the backdrop of the election results in the five States which recently went to polls.

Capitalising on the NaMo wave or trying to steal a march ahead of the others, it is the BJP which has been making all the 'noises' and training its guns against the Congress party while the others preferred to toe the line of 'silence is the better part of valour'.

View this against the fact that the BJP failed to send a single candidate to the State Legislative Assembly in the last election and the studied silence maintained by the others so far, notably the State unit of the Trinamool Congress, which is the second largest party in the current Assembly with seven MLAs, and the strategy adopted by the BJP becomes all that more interesting.

Seen along this line, then the term 'noises' may qualify as a 'strategy', a carefully crafted and scripted one at that.

Whether this will come to fruition or not is something which will be known only when the vote count starts coming in and that is a few good months away.

It is not only the TC which has been maintaining a studied silence but the others as well, including the MSCP which has five MLAs and the NCP which has one MLA.

The MPP, which was at one point of time the principal party opposed to the Congress is today a virtual non-entity with the voters deciding not to send a single of its candidates to the 10th Assembly, has also remained silent on the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Even the ruling Congress has not yet openly started rolling the election process.

Apart from the BJP, the only other party which has been making some sort of a noise is the Naga Peoples' Front with four MLAs in the State Assembly.

As for the CPI, it seems to have settled down with zeroing in on the name of Dr Nara Singh as its candidate in the Inner Parliamentary Constituency.

The 'noises' from the BJP and the NPF and the 'silence' from the others could all be election strategies and this is where the interesting point lies.

Noises and silence.

Stands diametrically opposite to each other, but the common thread that runs through these two opposites cannot be missed-Poll strategies.

Capitalising on the NaMo wave could be one reason for the BJP to raise its pitch, but it would be unwise to write off the 'prediction' of the president of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr Gaikhangam, that the political situation in the North East is different and which was corroborated by the landslide victory recorded by the Congress in Mizoram. With coalition Government becoming the order of the day, each and every MP will count within the frame of the magical mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha.

This is where the importance of small States like Manipur, which get to send only two MPs to the Lok Sabha cannot be discounted.

The trend of yesteryears, when the Lok Sabha election did not elicit much interest amongst the voters is passe' today.

This is why pre-poll alliance with regional political parties is at the core of poll strategies worked out by the two principal political parties, the Congress and the BJP at New Delhi.

Which button the voters of Manipur will punch on the EVMs when election comes is a matter of conjecture, but it would be not only foolish but also immature to write off the prospect of any of the parties which are in contention.

Early days yet, but what can be said with a degree of certainty is the point that if the NPF decides to go along with the BJP in the Outer Parliamentary Constituency and back Mr Gangmumei Kamei, then it will not be a cake walk for the Congress in the hills.