Imphal: The 13-Singjamei AC Returning Officer, Pangambam Yaitongba, has appealed to people of the constituency to cooperate with the women personnel who will be managing the polling stations in the constituency and ensure smooth, free and fair conduct of voting in the constituency.
13-Singjamei AC is the only constituency in Imphal West district where all Polling Stations will be managed exclusively by women polling personnel in the upcoming General Election, added the Returning Officer.
RO Yaitongba said 13-Singjamei AC has been assigned the colour Pink for the Silent Dispersal System. The Silent Dispersal System is a newly introduced system to be implemented in the district where different colour-coded T-Shirts and vehicles will be utilised for better communication and coordination during the dispersal of polling personnel in the ensuing election without using loudspeakers or public announcement systems as was done in the earlier elections. Colour coded t-shirts for all 13 ACs were launched by the District Election Officer, Imphal West Th.Kirankumar on February 14.
Further stating that 13-Singjamei AC has achieved 94.45 percent of 1st dose COVID vaccination and 81.59 percent of 2nd dose COVID vaccination, he appealed to all to get vaccinated according to their turn so as to achieve 100 percent vaccination.
Singjamei AC has 29 polling stations, divided into three sectors, with a total of 20,642 electors including 9367 male, 11,269 females and six transgender. The constituency has three 100+ electors, 475 electors who are 80+ and 209 PwD electors, Yaitongba said. A total of 199 Absentee Voters have opted for Postal Ballot and were found eligible including 178 AV for Senior Citizens and 21 AV for PwD.
13/4-Thokchom Leikai with 961 is the polling station with the highest electors and 13/22-Thongam Leikai with 408 has the lowest numbers of electors. Three polling stations – 13/9-Chingamakha High School (Western Wing), 13/14-Chingamakha High School (Eastern Wing) and 13/15-Chingamakha High School (Middle Wing) have been identified as Model Polling Stations.
Loitongbam Sarat Singh of Manipur People’s Party represented Singjamei AC winning the 1st Manipur Legislative Assembly by defeating Haobam Baruni Singh of the Indian National Congress in 1972.
Independent candidate Sanasam Biramani Singh defeated Laishram Joychandra of the MPP in the 1974 election to represent the constituency in the State Assembly.
The 1980 election witnessed the emergence of Irengbam Tompok Singh, who later became a political heavyweight of the state. Tompok defeated Thokchom Chandrasekhar of the Janata Party twice in the 1980 and 1984 elections. For his third consecutive win, Tompok defeated MPP’s Haobam Bhubon Singh in the 1990 election.
With Tompok’s death in the 1991 plane crash, Singjamei AC went for a bye-poll in the same year, which his son Irengbam Hemochandra Singh won by defeating Huidrom Surendra Kumar of the MPP.
Hemochandra managed to retain the seat by defeating Haobam Bhubon of the BJP in the 1995 Assembly election. However, Bhubon returned the favour in the 2000 election and defeated sitting MLA Hemochandra, who was contesting on Manipur State Congress Party ticket.
In 2002, Hemochandra switched to the Federal Party of Manipur and managed to win the seat against NCP’s Haobam Bhubon Singh. Hemochandra’s fourth term as Singjamei MLA was confirmed with his win as INC candidate against Sapam Tiken Singh of the MPP in the 2007 Assembly election.
Hemochandra defeated Yumnam Khemchand Singh of the AITC in the 2012 election for his fifth term as the Singjamei AC MLA. Yumnam Khemchand contested the 2017 election on a BJP ticket and defeated Hemochandra.
For the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly election 2022, Singjamei AC has four candidates in the fray. They are Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and the present Manipur Legislative Assembly Speaker Yumnam Khemchand Singh, Indian National Congress candidate Irengbam Hemochandra Singh, National People’s Party candidate Oinam Romen Singh and Janata Dal (United) candidate Ngangbam Robert Singh.
