Requiem for a regional party
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 25 , 2014 -

Manipur Peoples Party (MPP) Flag

In his book "Transforming India: Challenges to the World's largest democracy", Dr Sumanta Bose, who is the professor of International and Comparative Politics in London School of Economics, has argued how the rise of regional political parties over the last six decades as a direct fallout of the failure of National parties to take into consideration of the aspirations of all the people living in different parts of India has deepened the meaning of democracy by transforming the political landscape of the country to a robust multiparty and federal union.

This, we feel, is what India, which is a home to 1.

25 billion people composed of numerous ethnic, linguistic, religious, and caste communities, should be like for effective governance by giving a distinct voice to each and every community.

And, of course, in spite of all its flaws here and there, regionalisation of politics in India has come after a long democratic struggle through the popular will of the people, and there lies the beauty of India as the world's most diverse democracy.

However, in view of the recent developments that are taking place in the regional political platform of the Northeast region of India, more particularly in Manipur, we have been compelled to question and introspect why the relevance of regional parties is losing, slowly slipping away from the minds and hearts of the people.

This has been particularly true in the case of Manipur People's Party (MPP), the oldest regional political party in the State, which came into being on December 26, 1968 after a group of dissident leaders of Indian National Congress (INC) revolted against the polities and activities of the Congress regime at the Centre and set out to work in the interest of the people of Manipur only.

In spite of all the odds it had to face in pitting against the established political parties of the day, MPP succeeded in catching the imagination of the people with its regionalist political ideology and went on to shine in the political firmament, ruling the State for at least three terms, first under the leadership of Md Alimuddin from March 23, 1972 to March 27, 1993; the second, also under the leadership of Md Alimuddin from March 4, 1974 to July 9, 1974 and the third term under the leadership of RK Ranbir from February 23, 1990 to January 6, 1992.

However, after this good showing, MPP has shown speedy decline, slipping slowly away from the consciousness of the people.

Even if it was lucky enough to send four MLAs (three of whom later on defected to join Congress and Trinamool) in the House of 60-member Manipur State Assembly in the election held in 2007, MPP has not been able to win not even a single seat in the subsequent State Assembly elections of 2012 or in the Lok Sabha elections of 2009, thus, forcing to Election Commission of India to derecognise its status a regional political party along with freezing its once popular and ubiquitous election symbol, 'Bicycle'.

And now, the proverbial last nail in the coffin of MPP seems to come from the quitting of O Joy, the veteran politician who once stood all alone when everyone deserted him both from the membership of central committee of the party as well as the primary membership.

Perhaps, its high time for the remaining party leaders in the oldest regional party to do a deep soul searching on why it has come to such a stage.