Pol parties intensify poll activities, roll up sleeves

IMPHAL, Jan 13: With the State’s election schedule already announced, different political parties have intensified all poll related activities which include hectic discussions to field the most prospective candidates. As announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the State would go to polls in two phases on March 4 and March 8. Even though as many as 80 people have obtained Congress party’s nomination forms, only around 43/44 intending candidates have submitted nomination forms.

However, election officials have not been disclosing whether there are any political stalwarts among the people who have already obtained and/or submitted nomination forms. For the ruling Congress party, the last date for obtaining and submission of nomination forms is January 25 (till 4 pm).

As for BJP which is in power at the Centre, it is not yet clear whether the intending candidates would be invited officially or whether the party tickets would be given within the party itself. Nonetheless, the matter may be settled tomorrow. BJP Manipur Pradesh election in-charge Prakash Javadekar and Manipur in-charge Prahlad Singh Patel  will be arriving here tomorrow to discuss nomination of candidates, informed a source.

Names and other details of all the people who intend to contest the forthcoming election on BJP tickets in different Assembly segments have been already collected and the party’s Central leadership have already studied several times regarding who have the brightest prospect of emerging victorious in the election. As such, the party may not invite applications  from among the masses for party tickets.

Meanwhile, MPP president N Sovakiran said that the party has been working hard to field some candidates in the upcoming State Assembly election. The party would issue due notification in the next couple of days inviting applications from people who want to contest the 11th State Assembly election on MPP ticket, Sovakiran said. He said that it would be premature to tell the exact number of candidates the party may put up in the Assembly election.

The Left Democratic Front Manipur (LDFM) which is an alliance of six different political parties has announced that they would field candidates in 40 Assembly segments out of the total 60 seats. The front is also working to put up candidates in the remaining 20 Assembly segments too. It is reported that the front may formally announce the names of candidates by next week. The maximum number of candidates a constituent party may field are being considered and screening of candidates proposed by different constituent parties are being studied, sources informed. The constituent member parties of the front are CPI, CPI-M, JD-U, NCP, AAP and MNDF.

Source: The Sangai Express