Imphal: As the major political parties in Manipur especially the ruling BJP and the Congress are all gearing up for the 18th Lok Sabha election, albeit slowly given the public sentiment due to the current turmoil, upheavals in the main opposition party are palpable as the date of announcement of its candidates for the crucial polls dawns.
Once a formidable party with over 50 MLAs in the 60-member Manipur Legislative Assembly, around 42 per cent of its MLAs have switched over to BJP in the last five years with only five remaining. Currently, the party doesn’t have a willing candidate from its MLAs to represent in the upcoming general election, especially in the Inner Parliamentary constituency, which is mainly confined to the valley areas.
However, they have nominated at least five ‘willing candidates’ from its party membership including an “outsider”, who reportedly has not joined the party primary membership, to be ultimately selected by the party’s high command to contest in the election.
Party insiders said names of its senior member and former bureaucrat officer & MPCC Vice President Hareshwar Goshwami; MPCC Vice-President Tilotama Loitongbam and Ningombam Bupenda Meitei, AICC Member and Senior spokesperson; former IAS officer Abujam Tombikanta and Dr Bimol Akoijam, an Associate Professor at JNU, Delhi were submitted to party high command for nomination as the party’s official Inner Manipur Parliamentary constituency candidate.
All four members other than Dr Bimol have been party workers for years and have held various positions in the grand old party. However, the inclusion of the name of the JNU teacher by the party leadership in the state as a possible candidate has shocked and surprised everyone and has become a ticking point in ranks and files of the party organisation, the party insiders told The North East Affairs.
Apart from the four willing candidates, the State Congress leadership had earlier discussed proposing the name of Congress leader and former Minister Irengbam Hemochandra as the top priority. The second option was given to MPCC Working President K Devabrata Singh and the rest were the three willing candidates. However, they were ultimately dropped from the discussion.
Later, according to the sources, it is learnt that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi directed Okram Ibobi Singh, former chief minister of Manipur, to contest for the Lok Sabha polls as she felt that Ibobi was the only deserving candidate and someone who could take on the might of the ruling BJP.
What’s intriguing is the fact that, unlike the previous conventional practice in which the party announced invitations from the willing candidates through the media, this time it didn’t happen. Instead, the Screening Committee of the AICC asked the State leaders for a meeting with Central leaders in Delhi which took place on February 25, 2024.
During that meeting only three willing candidates including Hareshwar Goshwami, Ningombam Bupenda Meitei and Abujam Tombikanta attended. The twist of the event is that the name of Dr Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, who is not even a party member of Congress and who even didn’t show up in the said meeting, was submitted to the party high command by the party leadership, to switch their agenda of “Thoubal Politics” because Bimol’s ancestors were from Thoubal, the sources disclosed, adding that this has not only demoralised the entire party workers, it has betrayed those who have worked at the grassroots levels for years.
This was not the first time and will not be the last, the insiders confided to this news portal. This will only give a push to the BJP agenda of a “Congress-Mukt Bharat”.
This was abundantly clear when Hareshwar Goshwami, who is also the Vice- President of the MPCC and an intending candidate, made his views in his X handle: Is it ‘Nyay’ to choose an outsider as MP candidate for Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency, who is not even a member of INC and was not present at the time of Screening Committee meeting held in Delhi on 25 Feb 2024”.
Tilotama, who is also another Vice-president of MPCC and intended candidate wrote: “Mchabu Mchani hainingdba, mma mpashe Kooooo… hainingde” in her FB page, expressing her utter disappointment to the party leaders.
On the other hand, when news of Dr Bimol spread far and wide, he wrote on his FB account: “Will cross the bridge if and when I get there…but before that nupi masha khangdna koi haidudi tougumsi”, hinting that he was ready to jump in the world of politics but with a caution that nothing is finalised so far, probably from the University side of his ‘leave’.
While the term “Outsider” or “non-outsider” has been part of the Indian political lexicon, the news itself is bittersweet for the ruling saffron party, which is hoping for an absolute majority in the election.
A teacher at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Dr Akoijam has been an outspoken critic of the ruling party for years, including previous governments, and over their ‘mishandling’ of the 10-month-old crisis and unrest in Manipur. But one thing is certain: challenging and defeating a ruling BJP party candidate will be a herculean task for the Congress.
