Statistics not telling the whole story : Second best the first
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 18 2017 -

The longest ever economic blockade has been lifted.

The BJP may have missed the 48 hours of Government formation promise set earlier before the Assembly election to get the blockade lifted but it has been lifted and this is a fresh development.

The Sangai Express will however comment on the decision of the UNC to get the blockade lifted at a latter commentary but it is interesting to see that after 15 years of continuous rule by the Congress, Manipur has come under a BJP led coalition Government.

Not that the BJP emerged the single largest political party after the Assembly election but it did come second with 21 Assembly seats after the Congress which could secure 28 seats.

The interesting question now is, then was the election an affirmation that the people wanted a BJP led Government and had got fed up with the Congress after 15 years ?

Statistics say that the Congress emerged the single largest party with 28 seats and while statistics do not lie but give the correct figure, it may not however tell the whole story and this may explain why the BJP with 21 MLAs managed to clobber up a coalition Government.

This is where the argument from the BJP camp that the election this time was a mandate against the Congress gains traction.

This observation is obviously made with reference to the 2012 Assembly election when the Congress swept aside all opposition and bagged 42 seats and went on to increase its strength to 47 by merging the 5 MSCP MLAs into its fold.

With the BJP holding sway at Delhi and going strong in the Assembly elections held in other States, particularly in Assam, the 21 seats it managed to bag here was just the fillip it needed to dangle the carrots in front of the other political parties and stitch up a coalition Government.

Whether the coalition is a rag tag bunch or not will be only be known in the coming days, but for the moment the BJP seems to have arrived.

It is also interesting to note the performance of the BJP in the hills and the valley.

In contrast to the earlier perception that this time the election would be a highly polarised one, the BJP managed to ride over this and grab five seats in the hills and 16 in the valley.

Contrast this with the Congress where it managed to get only three seats in the Naga dominated hill districts at Ukhrul AC, Nungba AC and Karong AC.

Three out of nine seats it won in the hills and this indicates that the three Bills passed in the Assembly on August 31 in 2015 was not much of an issue in the just concluded Assembly election.

Early days yet but the decision of the UNC to call off the blockade may just be the right start for the BJP led coalition Government though there are many questions that may be raised on the UNC.