HOW BJP'S MOVES IN MANIPUR HAVE BOOMERANGED

The ruling party was the last to release its manifesto and list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in the state. What led to this?

- PRADIP PHANJOUBAM

FOR whatever reason, the ruling BJP was the last among the major parties in contention in the forthcoming elections to the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly to release its election manifesto. It was also the last to announce its list of candidates for the 60-member House. For a party in power in the state and at the Centre, and therefore the strongest contender, this is rather intriguing, but the answers are not entirely impossible to fathom.

Both of these events betray certain inherent problems in the party. The first is of being overweight on account of a spree of encouraged defections from other parties to swell its ranks, leading to the unenviable situation of several candidates fighting for each of the party’s 60 tickets. The second has to do with the state BJP’s lack of autonomy from the party’s central command in taking decisions even on local issues.

Since the issue of the delayed manifesto is more recent, the document having been released only on February 17, just 11 days before the first of the two phases of polling on February 28, it deserves a closer look first. The second phase of polling is scheduled for March 5.

Following the botched ambush on December 4 near Oting village in Nagaland’s Mon district by Army para commandos based in Jorhat, leaving 14 civilians dead, demands for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, a draconian law reviled across the Northeast, returned from a longish hibernation explosively.