By Express News Service
GUWAHATI: Protestors torched BJP flags, posters and allegedly forced the closure of its offices in some parts of Manipur on Sunday after their leaders were denied party tickets.
The incidents were reported from a few constituencies, including Kakching and Sagolband. Protests were also staged in the state capital of Imphal. However, there were no violent incidents. Apprehending trouble, the authorities had tightened security across constituencies in the Imphal valley.
The BJP’s Manipur election in-charge Bhupender Yadav claimed members with a long association with the party had been fielded while two sitting MLAs were denied tickets.
A large number of police commandos and personnel from central paramilitary forces have remained deployed at the party’s head office for about a week while the security of partys’ state president A Sharda Devi, ministers and MLAs were also tightened.
As immediate fallout, an aspirant at the Wangkhei seat, Thangjam Arunkumar, resigned from the party. Opposition Congress and National People’s Party said several BJP leaders, who missed the bus, were likely to contest the polls on their tickets.
After declaring the names of all 60 candidates in Delhi, Yadav exuded confidence that the party would retain power with more than a two-thirds majority. In the 2017 polls, the party had won 21 seats against Congress’ 28 but managed to cobble up the numbers to form the government.
However, the list has the names of over a dozen who had won the last election contesting from the Congress and other parties and later, defected to the BJP.
Three retired IAS officers – Dinganglung Gangmei, Yengkhom Surchandra and Raghumani Singh and three women – Soraisam Kebi Devi, SS Olish and Nemcha Kipgen – are among the BJP candidates.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh will contest from his pet Heingang seat, Assembly Speaker Yumnam Khemchand from Singjamei and senior minister Thongam Biswajit from Thongju. The two-phase polls will be held on February 27 and March 3.
