Congress wrests both Inner, Outer Lok Sabha seats
Huge setback for saffron party as Bimol Akoijam bags Inner seat, Alfred Outer PC
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 04 2024:
In a major Setback to the ruling BJP and its allies, Opposition Congress with just five MLAs have wrested both the Lok Sabha seats of Manipur.
Presenting a disappointing performance, both the BJP candidate and the NPF candidate lost to their rival Congress candidates.
This is the first time in the last more than 25 years that the Opposition has bagged the Inner Parliamentary Constituency seat, making the win of Bimol Akoijam all that more significant and the Congress has come back to represent the Inner seat after the 2019 Parliamentary elections.
Notably, the NPF candidate was supported by the BJP in the Outer Parliamentary Constituency.
The counting of votes for both the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency and the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency wound up this evening.
As INDIA Bloc's Congress candidate Prof Angomcha Bimol Akoijam registered a resounding victory in Inner Manipur PC, Alfred Kanngam Arthur of the same party and bloc secured a thumping victory in Outer Manipur PC.
Prof Bimol Akoijam scored a runaway victory with a record margin of 1,09,801 votes over his BJP rival Thounaojam Basantakumar.
Notably, Thounaojam Basantakumar is a Cabinet Minister in the Biren Government.
Prof Bimol Akoijam secured 3,74,017 votes while BJP's Basantakumar managed to get 2,64,216 votes.
In Outer Manipur PC, Congress candidate Alfred Kanngam Arthur defeated his nearest rival Kachui Timothy Zimik of NPF by a comfortable margin of 85,418 votes.
Against Timothy Zimik's 2,99,536 votes, Alfred Kanngam Arthur got 3,84,954 votes.
Of the 32 Assembly segments clubbed under Inner Manipur PC, Prof Bimol Akoijam received the highest number of votes in Lilong AC.
He got 21,788 votes in Lilong AC while Basantakumar came a distant second with just 6285 votes.
On the other end, Basantakumar secured an impressive 21,263 votes in Chief Minister N Biren's home turf, Heingang AC.
Prof Bimol received 5429 votes there.
The Congress candidate got the second highest number of votes in Wangkhem AC.
There he secured 18686 votes whereas BJP's Basantakumar was restricted to 4406 votes.
Other Assembly segments where the victorious candidate secured substantial number of votes are Thoubal AC-19835, Kshetrigao AC-17188, Naoriya Pakhanglakpa-15282, Patsoi-14169, Mayang Imphal-12318, Langthabal-11944, Wangoi-11918, Thangmeiband-11260, Lamsang-10076, Keisham thong-10064, Uripok-10471 and Singjamei-9386.In Khurai AC, the Congress candidate surpassed the BJP candidate.
He got 12,466 votes while Basantakumar managed to pick up 7844 votes.
Interestingly, Prof Bimol Akoijam outperformed his BJP rival in 22 Assembly segments.
Many of these Assembly segments are currently represented by either BJP MLAs or MLAs who are supporting the BJP-led Government.
In his home turf of Nambol AC, BJP candidate Th Basantakumar secured 16,673 votes whereas Prof Bimol garnered 10,634 votes.
Bishnupur
The counting of the votes for 6 Assembly Segments in Bishnupur district concluded with BJP's Th Basanta Kumar leading with a total of 60,229 votes, and Congress' Angomcha Bimol Akoijam trailing by securing 58,212.RPI Athawale's Maheshwar Thounaojam secured 23,267 votes, Independent candidates - RK Somendro got 2,654, Totomsana Moirangthem got 872, and Haorungbam Sarat got 243.As many as 622 voters cast their votes in favour of NOTA.