Vote to decide fate of Manipur not candidates
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: December 28, 2011 -

Satyajit Usham from the desk

With Election Commission of India fixing January 28, 2012 as the date for holding the elections to 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly, the battle-lines for the next month's Assembly polls has been drawn.

Even as the ruling Congress party is eyeing a political hat-trick, regional party, Manipur People's Party (MPP) has joined hands with National parties like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Janata Dal (United) in forging a pre-poll alliance to take on the Congress party.

On the other hand, with days of political honeymooning over after nearly two terms, CPI, the lone partner in the coalition Congress-led SPF government has announced its decision of going separate way from Congress party and that it is not averse to the idea of joining some pre-poll alliances of non-Congress parties.

In the last Assembly elections, Congress party garnered 31 seats in the 60-member House while MPP and NCP bagged four seats each. Ten seats were won by Independents, three seats by RJD and other smaller parties including National People's Party (NPP) made up for the rest.

BJP, which could not secure a single seat in the last Assembly elections held in 2007, is also keeping the option open for entering pre-poll alliance with other like-minded political parties with the sworn promise of unseating Congress party from its saddle.

These are some of the interesting developments that have surfaced in the run up to 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly elections, and all these developments forebode of a battle field with the Congress party on one side and the non-Congress parties on the other.

With the battle field all set for the political parties, the ball, as they say, is now in the court of the people. From past experiences, we have seen that elections in Manipur are high-voltage affairs with active participation of the people, either for good or worse.

Emotive as they are, people in Manipur always plunge head-long into the frenzy of elections and are vociferous of their affiliation or support of any political party or projected candidates.

In the ensuing election cacophony, the main issues for which an election is being held after every five years get swept under the rug.

In spite of their political activism, lack of political consciousness, in the true sense of the term, among the people, has been one defining characteristic feature of democracy in Manipur for long.

Time and again, it has been seen how the people can be easily swept off their feet from the ground beneath, either with muscle or money power, if not by glib talks of politicians, who, instead of fighting issue-based elections, are well-versed in political vendetta.

It is against this backdrop that some concerned citizens have come up with the concept of 'People's Campaign for Assembly Election, 2012: Deciding our Destiny' with the objective of awakening political consciousness among the people and making the politicians accountable for the mess and decadence we see in the society today.

This campaign, or for that matter, any similar campaigns, should expand its scope and encompass the people in remote areas of the state as well where daily struggle for life is more meaningful than the flashy ritual of a democratic election that comes once every five years.

Anyway, with election just round the corner, people in Manipur should remember that at the end of the day, it is their verdict that would decide the fate not of the candidates but the destiny of Manipur.