Imphal: 22-Wangoi Assembly Constituency Returning Officer H Sukumar Singh has urged the people of the constituency to ensure a peaceful poll day on February 28 without any untoward incident, and set an example for other constituencies to look up to.
He said the district administration has identified 36 polling stations, out of 40 polling stations in 22-Wangoi Assembly Constituency, as critical and vulnerable for the ensuing 1st phase polling of the 12th Manipur Assembly Elections, said the RO.
Stating that vulnerable polling stations have been identified against certain yardsticks including past records of law and order problems, lower turn out of voters, etc., Sukumar said that 34 polling stations have been identified as vulnerable PS in the constituency.
Two polling stations of 23/9 and 23/25 have been identified as critical polling stations, he said, adding that, if the vote polled in a certain polling station is above 90 percent of which more than 75 percent is in favour of a certain candidate in the last election, the polling station is identified as critical. The constituency had recorded a voting percentage of 94.13 percent in the 2017 General Elections.
Considering the number of vulnerable and critical polling stations in the constituency, the RO has urged the people to maintain proper decorum and ensure that there is no violation of model code of conduct.
He said 22/36-Yumnam Huidrom Makha Leikai with 1133 electors has the highest number of electors and 22/40-Chongtham Kona with 315 electors has the lowest number of electors in the constituency.
22/19 Wangoi Junior High School and 22/24 Social Welfare Club have been identified as Model cum Women Polling Stations.
There are 29,761 electors out of which 14,522 are male and 15,235 are female. Wangoi AC also has four transgender electors, 421 electors above 80 years, two above 100 years and 209 PwD electors. Altogether 293 electors who had opted for Postal Ballot (12D) for Absentee Voters have been found eligible.
22-Wangoi AC has three candidates, BJP candidate and cabinet minister Oinam Lukhoi Singh, Nationalist People’s Party candidate Khuraijam Loken Singh and Indian National Congress candidate Salam Joy Singh.
In the 1st Manipur Legislative Assembly elections, 1972, Manipur People’s Party candidate Chungkham Rajmohan Singh defeated Wahengbam Nipamacha of the Indian National Congress in 22-Wangoi AC.
In the 1974 election, INC’s W Nipamacha Singh defeated MLA Rajmohan, who had won the 1972 election.
Rajmohan contested the 1980 election on an Indian National Congress (Indira) ticket and defeated Nipamacha, who contested the election as the Janata Party candidate.
From the 1984 elections till 2000 elections, Wahengbam Nipamacha retained the 22-Wangoi AC seat defeating INC’s Chungkham Rajmohon in both the 1984 and 1990 elections. Nipamacha contested the 1984 elections as Janata Party candidate and as ICS(SCS) candidate in the 1990 elections.
In the 1995 and 2000 elections, Nipamacha, contesting as INC and MSCP candidate respectively, defeated Yumnam Mani consecutively. Yumnam Mani contested the 1995 election as Federal Party of Manipur candidate and 2000 elections as BJP candidate. Wahengbam Nipamacha became the Chief Minister of the State during the later part of the 6th State Assembly leading the then MSCP government and early part of the 7th State Assembly.
In the 8th Assembly Elections in 2002, Yumnam Mani Singh contesting as Manipur State Congress Party candidate defeated Wahengbam Nipamacha Singh, who fought on a Manipur National Conference party ticket. Nipamacha suffered another defeat in the 9th Assembly elections in 2007 against NCP’s Salam Joy Singh.
All India Trinamool Congress candidate Oinam Lukhoi Singh defeated Nationalist Congress Party’s Salam Joy Singh in the 2012 election and National People’s Party’s Khuraijam Loken Singh in the 2017 election.
In 2020 bye-poll, Oinam Lukhoi, contesting as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate won against Kh Loken of NPP.
