Electoral maneuvers
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: December 21, 2011 -

As the day for the final reckoning which will decide who will be at the helm of affairs in the state for the next five years approaches, political parties and intending candidates have started placing their cards on the table.

Political parties, both regional and national who expect to play a significant role in the coming elections are carrying out various maneuvours to enhance their chances and put the opposite camp on the defensive.

Hectic activities are on to forge alliances among the political parties especially within those who are not in the ruling front. And within the ruling Secular Popular Front, the Congress and the CPI do not seem to be on the best of terms, there were even times when their differences came out in the public spheres with prominent members of both parties indulging in mudslinging.

Given this sort of atmosphere there was little possibility of any alliance and when Dr Nara announced the intent of CPI to go it alone in the coming election to the state assembly, he was only stating the obvious.

As such the two parties had never entered into a pre-poll alliance, but at the same time a post-poll understanding between the two depending on the performance of the various parties on fray, cannot be ruled out.

On the other side of the political divide, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) buoyed by its success in the recent Khundrakpam A/C bye election, seems to fancy its chances and has decided to go it alone.

But the TMC reaping a rich harvest at the upcoming hustings on its own appears remote. Among the other parties, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Manipur Peoples Party (MPP) have forged a pre-poll alliance to defeat the Congress in the state.

NCP leader Agatha Sangma, as justification for the move, voiced her concern over the continuation of AFSPA and her unhappiness over the indifference shown by the central government to the 11 years long fast of Irom Sharmila demanding its repeal.

Incidentally, NCP is part of the UPA government at the centre and Agatha Sangma is a minister to the hilt of the same government and either the NCP nor Miss Sangma finds the same issue compelling enough to part company with the Congress at the centre.

But then, electoral politics is all about pragmatism, and principles are always given a short shrift. As for the BJP, its national leaders seem to be paying a lot of attention to the state, even though the state unit itself does not appear to be in the best of health and its ability to energize itself, put up a respectable show in the coming Assembly elections appears far fetched.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari who is here in Manipur besides promising peace, development, bandh and blockade free years ahead, has also revealed that the party is engaged in talks with MPP to forge an alliance.

By all appearance, it is clear that the BJP is taking the Manipur election very seriously and will walk the extra mile to see the Congress defeated.

With the Congress in the centre coming under a lot of pressure following various scams and charges of impropriety against some of its more prominent members, the BJP is hoping to piggyback ride on the Anna Hazare's movement and come out trumps in the next election to the Lok Sabha.

The fact that BJP President Gadkari has been stressing this possibility is part of a strategy to wean away not just the voters but also prospective candidates, considering the fact that state has always shown an inclination for the same government as in the centre.

But will they be convinced of the BJP's ability to come to power at the centre is another question. All the same, for the BJP, it a gambit worth trying.