Musing over the Imphal Municipal Council Poll
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 21 2011 -

JUST A few days are left for the polls to elect a new Imphal Municipal Council. By now the preferences of the electorate will have almost polarised, undecided voters will now be far and few in between.

To put the contestants into two broad categories, it will be the Congress versus the rest.

The main planks from which these two sides have chosen to expound their causes is, the Congress claims it has brought about visible developmental changes in the period it has ruled the state, and on the other hand, those against the Congress, claim that the institutionalisation of corruption has become confirmed and complete during this period of Congress rule.

They also say the voters have at last removed the scales of ignorance and indifference from their eyes and that they are now alert to any devious moves of the Congress. The proof?

Well, they have not stopped thumping their chests over the TMC victory in the Konthoujam A/C bye poll. This, they claim is definitive proof that the Congress' manipulative moves and the heavy use of money power to woo voters has finally been rejected by the people.

How are we to respond to this except by saying 'As you say so'. And before we forget it, one can add an adage, as a rejoinder, 'One swallow does not make a summer'.

As a general understanding it is learnt that the Congress has emasculated the opposition.

The opposition as of now is bereft of a political strategy except to claim, that the present Congress government is the most corrupt in the history of Manipur, and that the Konthoujam A/C bye poll has shown that the people have at last seen through the dirty schemes of the Congress, and that it only survives because of the Anti Defection Law passed during the NDA government's tenure in the Centre.

But having shifted the chaff from the grain, you realise they are absolutely tight lipped of what they intend to do if they were to run the government. This is where their credibility loses shape colour and taste. At best it is insipid.

If the general public has removed the scales of ignorance from their eyes and have seen the Congress for its true worth, they will have also seen the obverse fact that the motley opposition is a complete non performer, apart from raving and ranting.

And yet this is not the complete story. The opposition lacks the guile of electoral politics, in short, political craft. In this field the Congress beats them hands down, it is like the Manipur team playing a hapless Gujarat team in a game of Sepak Takraw. We all know what is going to happen to the Gujarat team.

The one valid point the opposition makes is that the people will decide the polls. As observers we will have to wait for the results.

If it is an anti Congress verdict, no matter what, the opposition will have proved a point, if not, there is nothing to get morose about, you just did not know how to play this game.