New challenges, new chief of the State : BJP Eyes on the coming polls
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 06 2016 -

New man at the helm.

The congratulatory notes have not stopped coming in and the appointment of the new State unit president of the BJP seems to have infused fresh hopes in the party.

This is welcome but the task must be clear to Ksh Bhabananda, the new president of the State BJP.

The Assembly election is due in the early part of next year and while this will be the acid test for the new president, a sort of a semi-final is already awaiting him and this is the election to the Imphal Municipal Corporation, for which election has been fixed on June 2.

How well the BJP does in the IMC election lies in the realm of speculations, but this is the first test for the new president and it will be interesting to see how the party gears up for the election, come June 2.

For a man who has not had much experience in the field of electoral politics, it remains to be seen how Ksh Bhabananda will be able to cope with the demands that are bound to come his way but it is refreshing to see that the BJP high command has deemed it better to go in for a man who does not have any political baggage.

Again to many, Bhabananda may not be a known face for he is relatively new to electoral politics and the BJP high command must have taken his close association with the party into consideration while opting for his name.

And so it will possibly be between a green horn in electoral politics and TN Haokip, the new president of the State unit of the Congress, a veteran in electoral politics, when the IMC election is held and more importantly when the Assembly election is held next year.

Unlike 2012, it is heartening to see that there is now a political party which is in a position to give a good fight to the Congress at the hustings.

Remember back in 2012, the BJP was not yet the force it is now today and its presence in Manipur was minimal.

But thanks to the stupendous showing of the party in the 2014 Parliamentary election, today it is on a high and with Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonstrating that he means business, it will be interesting to see what strategy the Congress will adopt to counter the Modi juggernaut.

From no MLA in the 2012 election, the BJP today has two MLAs in the persons of Kh Joykishan and Th Bishwajit and this is good progress.

How this will impact on the 2017 Assembly election is not yet known, but already the BJP seems ready to take the fight to the turf of the Congress.

This is what will make the role of Ksh Bhabananda all that more interesting.

Remember here is a man who has never entered the fray but is expected to oversee a party that will take on the Congress which is in power for the third consecutive term.

An unsullied image and a man committed to the ideology of the BJP, but with no experience in electoral battle.

This is the new State president, Ksh Bhabananda and this is where the novelty lies.