Cong win both seats in state too
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, May 16 2009: The Indian National Congress (INC) has won both the parliamentary seats of Manipur with the completion of the counting of votes late Saturday.

In the Outer Manipur Parliamentary constituency, Congress candidate Thangso Baite defeated his nearest rival and People's Democratic Alliance's (PDA) candidate Mani Charenamei, who is also the sitting member of Parliament (MP), by a huge margin of 1, 19, 798 votes while sitting MP and Congress candidate of Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency, Dr Thokchom Meinya defeated his nearest rival Dr Moirangthem Nara of Communist Party of India (CPI) by a margin of 30, 960 votes.

Congress secured 3, 44, 517 votes out of total valid votes of 7, 56, 181 without the postal ballots while PDA got 2, 24, 719 in the Outer Manipur constituency of which the counting concluded 4 p.m.

Victorious Thangso Baite (left), Dr T Meinya

D Lolie Adanee of BJP came third with 93, 052 votes.

District wise analysis showed the Congress got maximum votes from Kuki dominated district of Churachandpur and from the seven assembly constituencies of Thoubal district which is the home constituency of state Chief Minister O Ibobi.

However, these were also distributed between the Congress and LB Sona of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) who got a total of 79, 849 votes.

On the other hand, Mani got the highest number of votes from Naga dominated districts of Senapati, Ukhrul and Tamenglong but could not get much from Chandel district which is also dominated by Nagas as it was distributed him and the Congress who beat him by 12, 600 votes in the district.

He could not get many votes from Churachandpur district and from the seven assembly segments of Thoubal district which had supported him in the last parliamentary elections in 2004 .

In the Inner Manipur Parliamentary constituency, Dr.Thokchom Meinya of Indian National Congress (INC) retained his seat for Inner Manipur Parliamentary constituency to the Indian Parliament by defeating his nearest rival Dr.Moirangthem Nara of Communists Party of India (CPI) by a margin of only 30, 960 votes.

Congress got 2, 30, 876 votes out of the total 5, 83, 218 votes cast while CPI got 1, 99, 916 votes.

Th.Chaoba of Manipur People's Party (MPP) secured 1, 01, 787 votes coming third out of the seven candidates in the fray for the inner seat of the Parliament.

Congress dominated in 18 of the 32 assembly constituencies of the Inner Parliamentary followed on the heels by M.Nara of the CPI who won in 9 of the 32 assembly constituencies.

Interestingly, seven assembly constituencies of Thoubal district and Jeribam constituency of the Imphal East districts falls in the Outer Manipur constituency which went in good major to the Congress and the NCP.

Meanwhile, it may be reminded here the CPI and MPP had lodged complaint to the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Manipur on widespread proxy voting, impersonation and misappropriation allegations against the Congress in Andro and Thoubal.

The two major political parties of the state also strongly demanded re-polling but could not get positive result.

In Andro Assembly segment which the CPI considers its strong hold area, the party got only 4277 out of 22,726 votes while congress got 16,280 votes.

At Thoubal Assembly segment, CPI got only 6828 votes out of 24139 votes cast while the Congress got 16,136 votes.

The elections to the two parliamentary seats of the Lok Sabha in Manipur were held in two phases- the Outer on April 16 and the Inner on April 22 .