Imphal: The BJP announced its list of all 60 candidates for the February 27 and March 3 Manipur Assembly polls on Sunday, dropping three sitting MLAs including Yumkham Erabot Singh of Wangkhei, Pukhrem Sharatchandra Singh of Moirang and Mayanglambam Rameshwar of Kakching.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh will contest from Heingang, as in the last Assembly polls, while most of the cabinet ministers and MLAs have been fielded from the seats they hold.
Former Minister and Congress MLA Okram Henry will replace Irabot of Wangkhei. Erabot who contested on a BJP ticket in the last state assembly election in 2017 had secured 12,417 votes and came second in the election. With 16, 753 votes, the then Congress candidate Henry was declared as a winner.
However, following an election petition filed by Erabot contending that Henry filed a ‘false affidavit’ to the Election Commission, a single bench of the Manipur High Court Justice MV Muralidaran on April 15, 2021, declared the election of Henry as ‘null and void’.
Later, the court declared Erabot as an elected MLA of Wangkhei AC of Imphal East district.
Henry then resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP as a minister of Social Welfare last September.
Surchandra Singh will replace M Rameshwar of Kakching for the ensuing 12th Manipur Assembly election 2022. A three-time Congress MLA, Surchandra has been a part and partial of the ruling party over the last few years, however, he was removed from the MLAship by the Manipur High Court for non-disclosure of vital information in his poll affidavit. He formally joined the ruling saffron party in January this year only.
BJP’s state chief A Sharda Devi and Ashok Singhal, the party’s Manipur in charge were among those present at the induction ceremony of the two.
A former Congress MLA, Mairembam Prithviraj Singh, who is believed to be a close confidant of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, will replace the sitting MLA P Sharatchandra of Moirang AC. He joined the party in October last year.
