Snapping the 10 year old tie : Post poll and pre-vote count day
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 02, 2012 -

The ACs lined up for the repoll - Pix :: TSE

Election to the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly has been an interesting affair in more than one way.

The stringent dos and don'ts issued by the Election Commission of India via the office of the State Chief Electoral Officer not only meant keeping a tight lease on the political parties and their respective candidates but also on the media on how it went about with the business of covering news stories related to the election.

Suddenly Manipur witnessed what an empowered institution is all about and there is a lesson to be learnt from here which the next Government can extend into the realm of governance.

If the stringent measures enforced by the election office was something unprecedented then its logical exten- sion can be seen in the instruction from the ECI to go in for another round of repoll including two polling stations in Chandel Assembly Constituency and three in Tadubi Assembly Constituency where repoll has already been held on February 4.

This means Manipur will see five polling stations voting thrice in a single election making this election all that more unique and interesting. Something fit for the record book ?

Removed from the realm of the ECI but which anyway added that dash of 'uncertainty and excitement' were the strong stand taken by the CorCom, a conglomerate of different underground outfits, against the Congress and the entry of the Naga People's Front in the electoral arena of Manipur.

How far these will impact on the outcome of the election or on the future political developments in Manipur remains to be seen, but the impact will not be 'inconsequential.'

This is a rough sketch of the scenario during the run up to the January 28 election and the interesting part is to see the fresh turn of events after the election and even before the votes have been counted.

The race for the post of the leader of the Congress Legislature Party has intensified and giving that extra zing to the thriller of the race is the decision of the CPI to exit from the SPF coalition with the Congress.

There could be many reasons for the CPI to walk out of a decade old partnership but what must have caught the keen political watchers of the State by surprise was the timing. It did not come before the election and it has not after the votes have been counted. This is both intriguing and interesting.

Coalition politics is a dicey game. It is not only about accommodating different views and perspectives but is also a lot about massaging inflated egos, though this may not necessarily be with the SPF.

The Congress had reasons to be happy or satisfied with the CPI as a partner. In 2002 it needed the numerical strength of the CPI and blended well with the changing shift of striking up post poll alliances as witnessed in the rest of the country.

Moreover the cadre based characteristic of the Left party meant that the Congress did not have to deal with the headache of 'rebel' members from the CPI which became all that more significant after the cap on the strength of the Council of Ministers was put into force.

On the other hand, to the CPI, supping with the Congress was the right opportunity to demonstrate that it can also adapt to the changing political equation across the country and not be stuck down with dogmas and in the process expose itself to the danger of getting stereotyped as a party which cannot look beyond its immediate ideology.

It was also a telling statement that to them the Congress is a party more acceptable than the right wing BJP.

The Common Minimum Programme of the SPF was the foundation on which the alliance rests but that not everything was right in the internal mechanisms of the alliance was brought to the fore when the veteran Rishang Keishing resigned as the Convenor of the Steering Committee of the SPF soon after the coalition Government was put in place in 2002.

That the Common Minimum Programme was something which had receded into the background became clear but fast forward to 2012 and this has suddenly become one of the contentious issues, according to the CPI, when they spelt out their decision to snap ties with the Congress.

It is a given that no political alliances can be expected to last forever, but the interesting point in the recent development is the timing, as we have noted above.

The SPF did not collapse when the Left pulled out from the UPA at Delhi and it did not when the coalition came in for heavy criticisms during the last ten years.

Uncertainty is what best describes politics, especially when it comes to political alliances in this age of coalition Governments and perhaps it is this uncertainty which may be said to be the only certainty.