GUWAHATI: The Congress is dreaming big about the upcoming Manipur elections but it, surely, will have a mountain to climb to upset the BJP applecart.
The party is going to polls against the backdrop of a series of defections by its MLAs to the BJP which heads the ruling coalition.
The PA Sangma-founded National People’s Party (NPP) and the Naga People’s Front (NPF) – a party from Nagaland that has spread its wings to Manipur – are the two other components of the coalition.
Over the past five years or so, 13 Congress MLAs deserted the party to wear saffron. Switchover by MLAs to the ruling party has been a growing trend in the Northeast where people vote more in favour of individuals than political parties.
The Congress is also plagued by the absence of vibrant and energetic young leaders. A couple of them that it had are now with the BJP. As such, the seasoned and battle-hardened Okram Ibobi Singh (73) continues to be the party’s Manipur face.
Only time will tell whether the Congress will be able to give the BJP a run for its money but the general perception is that it will emerge as the second-largest party after the BJP.
Pradip Phanjoubam, who is the Editor of Imphal Review of Arts and Politics, felt the BJP will have an edge over the Congress.
“The Congress is campaigning hard but the ruling party, usually, has an edge over others everywhere. I feel the Congress is slightly down,” Phanjoubam told The New Indian Express on Tuesday.
He thought the Congress would still be able to put up a fight.
“The Congress has been in power several terms in Manipur. It has some veterans, a lot of who can win. The only thing is that some of them have defected. However, despite the setbacks, it will still be a force to reckon with,” he added.
Manipur Congress spokesman K Debabrata said the growing popularity of the NPP and the NPF would hurt the BJP more than the Congress.
“The NPF and the NPP have grown up since. They are likely to bag 10 seats each by cutting into the BJP votes. They will also cause a split of the Congress votes but it will be less,” Debabrata said.
He claimed the NPP was falling out with Chief Minister N Biren Singh and had already declared that it would not align with the BJP. “There could be a post-poll scenario where the Congress will form the government along with the NPP and the NPF,” he said, adding, “The BJP will get less than 20 seats”.
In June last year, all four NPP legislators in the state had quit the ministry until returning to the government a few days later following the intervention of BJP stalwart and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“We are aiming at getting majority by becoming the single largest party, again,” the Congress spokesman said.
He admitted there was none more popular than Ibobi in the Congress.
“We leave the issue of our CM face to the future. Whosoever will command a bigger number of MLAs may become the CM. Our coalition partners may also ask for the CM post,” he said.
Any party that cannot get along with the BJP will be the Congress’ partner. The Congress is not going for the pre-poll alliance, he added.
In the 2017 polls, the Congress had won 28 seats as against the BJP’s 21 in the 60-member House but the latter managed to cobble up the numbers to form the government.