Imphal, April 11 2009: Out of the nine candidates in the fray for the Outer Manipur Parliamentary seat, Lamlalmoi Gangte at 33 years of age is the youngest but not necessary short of vision to pull up Manipur out from the political mess the people had been enduring for decades.

unlike many of the candidates who have political heavyweights for support and adorn campaign rostra to bray for mandate of the eligible voters when polling for the Outer seat is held on April 16, Lamlalmoi relies on his physical abilities of being a footballer to establish direct contact with the electorates through door to door campaigns.

With apparent reference to most candidates depending on publicity through the electronic and print media to lure the electorates cast vote in their favour, Lamlalmoi said: "I go alone from door to door and village to village myself requesting the people to cast vote.

from the core of their hearts people shower blessing upon me and I'm quite confident to win the election because the people see my strength, purity and ability to make a bright Manipur".

A player to reckon with during his playing days, Gangte is said to have captained the Manipur University football team in 1995 in addition to representing the State in various national level competitions.

Regarding his foray into politics, the youngest among the nine Scheduled Tribe candidates contesting the Outer seat contended that he was not impressed either by the performances of politicians in their advanced stage of life or stand and commitment of political parties to certain key issues besieging manipur including the perennial law and order problem, unemployment, regional disparity etc.

originally hailing from the remote Longpi village in Tamenglong district but currently shifts residence with his birthplace and Games Village (Langol), Lamlalmoi envisioned that Manipur desperately needs rebuilding with the youths as the foundation while contending that current bunch of politicians and those at the helm of affairs in the State are more inclined towards wealth than uphold sanctity of governance.

"this needs to be rectified," advocated Lamlalmoi who is an alumni of Sainik School, Imphal and runs a school at near his Langol residence.

Conveying that youth force is the need of the hour in leveraging manipur out from present doldrums and to prevent socio-economic decadence of the people, Lamlalmoi asserted to have taken up various measures to transform the youths' mind into positive and collective synergy so as to develop the society.

Quipping 'I think Manipur is politically sick', he claimed that his choice of banana as the symbol is to feed the ailing manipur with the nutritious fruit.

With all seriousness the soft-spoken candidate added: "Manipur needs banana for its diet to cure its sickness afflicted due to exposure to the vexed issues of territorial integrity and the Armed Forces' special Powers Act".

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