Rolling up sleeves for 2017 Assembly polls : Congress versus BJP
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 08 2016 -
C for Congress, C for Corruption. This was Chaoba, or rather Th Chaoba, the State unit president of the BJP.
Tough to say whether the Congress will retort or not, but what is undeniable is the fact that the tempo for the 2017 Assembly election is picking up pace.
More interestingly, it is also more than clear that the showdown next year will most probably be between the Congress and the BJP.
So it is going to be between the Congress which has 47 MLAs in the 60 member Assembly and the BJP which has just two in the Assembly.
Moreover important to note that the Congress has been in power since the 2002 Assembly election and no BJP candidate was elected in the 2012 Assembly election.
The present two BJP MLAs were elected during the by elections held at Thangmeiband Assembly Constituency and Thongju Assembly Constituency on November 24 last year.
The by elections were necessitated following the disqualification of the elected MLAs from the two Assembly Constituencies on the anti-defection law (That the two disqualified MLAs were returned to the Assembly is another matter).
So from a party which had no MLA to now a party which is likely to pose the biggest challenge to the Congress and the way in which the political wind can change here is interesting.
The Delhi factor is too significant to miss and remember what a powerful player the BJP was here more than a decade back, when the party led the NDA coalition Government in Delhi under the stewardship of Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Such a decisive player it was that it was the BJP which played a major role in voting out the Samata Party led Government under Radhabinod Koijam in 2001.
Of the 26 BJP MLAs in the Assembly then, 24 voted against the confidence motion sought by the Government.
This was way back in 2001 when the BJP was in power at Delhi and the manner in which it is making its presence felt here now may also be largely attributed to the good showing dished out by the party under Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Delhi.
It is also important to remember that other than M Bhorot who got elected from Thangmeiband Assembly Constituency in the 2002 Assembly election, none of the other BJP MLAs, which Manipur has so far seen, are ‘original’ BJP men.
This should hammer home the point that is sought to be made here. Whatever the case, it is good to see a reliable contender to the Congress emerging, for it stands that for too long the Congress here has been suffering from the TINA factor (There Is No Alternative).
Remember the Congress is into its third consecutive term in power and in the process O Ibobi has become the longest serving Chief Minister in the State.
Premature it would be to read the political tea leaves, but the coming days will surely be interesting.
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