Choosing the right candidate : The first important step
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 11, 2021 -

Things are indeed moving fast making things all that more interesting and adding more colour, if one may add.

So even as the BJP and the Congress have been in poll mode, with the BJP, by dint of being the party heading the coalition Government at Imphal, grabbing eyeballs with huge Page 1 advertisements in all the prominent dailies published from Imphal, the Congress too has been going hammer and tongs against the saffron party.

All these with an eye on the coming Assembly elections and why not ?

This is the first time here that the BJP will be looking to return to power after it seized power in the 2017 Assembly elections and the Congress seems set to play spoilsport keen on getting back the seat of power, which it occupied for 15 years on the trot.

Adding more colour to the poll preparedness of the two principal political parties is the announcement of Chief Minister N Biren that the saffron party is looking to form a Government on its own without the support of any other political party.

The shortfalls of running a coalition Government, as spelt out by the Chief Minister is noted, but the question of bigger import is whether the BJP hopes to garner the requisite number of seats to form the Government on its own.

Tough to say whether the BJP has it in them to take the fight to the Naga People's Front in the Naga dominated districts of Senapati, Ukhrul, Chandel and Tamenglong. Making it more interesting is the recent public statement of Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar that the National People's Party (NPP) will emerge as the single largest party after the election and herein lies the interesting part.

Was the public statement of the Deputy Chief Minister aimed at neutralising the earlier announcement of the Chief Minister that the BJP wants to form the Government on its own ?

This poser is obviously a shot in the dark, but not a wild shot, for anything is possible in the impossible world of politics.

And remember the NPP with four MLAs is an important constituent of the BJP led Government here and it was one of the constituent partners-the NPF with 4 MLAs, one UP, one Independent, one AITC MLA-which came to the rescue of the BJP in Government formation with the saffron party managing just 21 seats in the House of 60. The Congress then had 28 MLAs in its kitty.

Interesting days and to be sure poll pundits who are a dime a dozen in many leikais and leiraks must have started reading the tea leaves in the neighbourhood tea stalls.

Whatever the final outcome, the poll pundits will definitely be able to read the crystal ball clearer the moment, the candidate lists are announced by either party.

This is where it may be said that the race to the seat of power will be decided to a large extent by the choice of candidates which either party decides to nominate.

Being the party in power at New Delhi and Imphal as well, the BJP must be spoilt for choices and one just has to take a look at the number of aspiring BJP candidates at each Assembly Constituency to drive home this point.

The backroom boys and election strategists of the BJP and the Congress must have started studying the background and position of all the aspiring candidates and this is where it needs to be kept in mind that the race to the seat of power will depend to a large extent on the candidates either party decides to field.

Will it be a question of integrity of the intending candidates, their background, their ideologies, their past records etc or will it be reduced to an exercise of choosing the one who is best in the art of chamchagiri or the Yes Sir type who will just do the bidding of the State's leadership without questioning the ethics, morale and its impact on the people and land?

Again this question must have been studied deeply by the backroom boys of either party, but it would be in the fitness of things to sincerely look into the future and study whether the man or woman they have chosen to allot the ticket have it in him or her to look 10 or 15 or even 20 years hence.

This was how the Congress was built from the pre-independence days and this was how the BJP came to capture the imagination of the people from its earlier avatar the Jana Sangh.

For starters both parties will need to first put their mind on the rising voice to have the Armed Forces Special Powers Act repealed, in the aftermath of the massacre at Mon district of Nagaland some days back.

How about the demand that the Meiteis be included in the ST list of the Constitution?

Or will these demands wither away in the rising din of the election campaign?