Looking at the deeper implications : More than wins and losses
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 25 2015 -

The implication is more than the win and the loss.

On paper it will read as Kh Joykishan of the BJP winning the by election in Thangmeiband Assembly Constituency and Th Bishwajit, again of the BJP, winning in Thongju Assembly Constituency.

Again on paper it will be Jyotin Waikhom of the Congress losing in Thangmeiband AC and Bijoy Koijam, again of the Congress, losing in Thongju AC.

With the BJP sweeping the Parliamentary elections in 2014, it has emerged as the political party capable of taking the fight to the Congress here, which has been in power in Imphal for the last three terms.

However to view the results of the by elections as the victory of only the BJP would be missing the target.

True, Joykishan and Bishwajt are with the BJP and Jyotin Waikhom and Bijoy Koijam, the two candidates who lost in the two Assembly Constituencies were Congress candidates, but it was more than these two candidates who lost.

In more ways than one, the run up to the election in the two Assembly Constituencies suggested that the two BJP candidates were up against the State Government which is under the Congress.

Technically, Jyotin Waikhom and Bijoy Koijam may have lost, but in reality it may be said that it was the State Government under the Congress which lost the by elections.

This may not reflect on official documents, but it is more than true that the two BJP candidates were up against the Congress Government here and this may be said to be the uglier side of the by election.

This is what would have made the victory of the BJP candidates all that sweeter.

With 48 MLAs in the 60 member State Assembly, the Congress appeared to be on the right wicket.

The run up to the by election on November 21 too suggested this.

Unofficially it may also have meant that funds would not have been a constraint.

The manner in which Chief Minister O Ibobi and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam campaigned and canvassed for the Congress candidates more than suggested that the Congress was taking it more than just a by election.

True the BJP did depute some of its heavy weights from Delhi, but they paled in comparison to the canvassing that the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister launched in the two Assembly segments.

Statistics may not tell the whole story, but it is significant to note that the two BJP candidates romped home by huge margins.

The margin of nearly two thousand and over three thousand in Thangmeiband AC and Thongju AC respectively should tell a story of its own.

Time also right for the Congress to come to terms with the fact that the people of the two Assembly Constituencies have delivered a statement that ultimately it is not money power which will decide the fate of the candidates but their ability to convince the people that they are there to work for them.

2017 is still some months away, but let this be a lesson to all aspiring candidates.