As parliamentary election comes the attacks of Kuki-Zomi militants on Meiteis seem paused till date. However, suspected armed militants fired upon the election gatherings of Indian National Congress (INC) candidate Alfred Kanngam Arthur for the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency in the forthcoming 18th Parliamentary Election of India.
The Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency will go to the polls twice – April 19 and April 26. It was said when the Election Commission of India announced the dates for the General Election on March 16.
In the General Elections 2024, one Parliamentary constituency will have the distinction of going to the polls twice. It was noticed that the number of constituencies added up to 544 instead of tallying with the 543 Lok Sabha seats. However, this did not mean that any new constituency had been added. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar explained that this was due to the special situation in the Outer Manipur constituency.
Elections for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. While every constituency gets to choose its Member of Parliament on a single given day, Outer Manipur constituency alone will have elections on two days. This is done taking into consideration the violence between the Kuki-Zomi militants and the Meiteis in the State.
While Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency will be voting on April 19, outer Manipur will vote on two dates – April 19 and April 26.
The districts of Churachandpur and Chandel in the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency are part of the phase 1 polling. Both the districts witnessed violence between Kuki-Zomi militants and Meiteis.
According to Election Commission of India notifications, polling will be held on April 19 for the 15 Assembly segments falling under Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency. This includes Heirok, Wangjing Tentha, Khangabok, Wabgai, Kakching, Hiyanglam, Sugnoo, Chandel (ST), Saikul (ST), Kangpokpi, Saitu (ST), Henglep (ST), Churachandpur (ST), Saikot (ST), and Singhat (ST).
The remaining 13 Assembly segments under Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency will go to polls on April 26. These are Jiribam, Tengnoupal (ST), Phungyar (ST), Ukhrul (ST), Chingai (ST), Karong (ST), Mao (ST), Tadubi (ST), Tamei (ST), Tamenglong (ST), Nungba (ST), Tipaimukh (ST), and Thanlon (ST).
Meanwhile, the election gatherings of INC candidate Alfred Kanngam Arthur for the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency have been attacked by suspected armed militants raining rounds of gunshoots.
On March 18, suspected armed militants disturbed the interaction programme of the intending INC candidate Alfred Kanngam Arthur held at TK Woodland Resort at Shirui of Ukhrul district by firing bullets.
For the second consecutive day, suspected armed militants on Tuesday, March 19 fired several rounds of gunshots at the venue of an election campaign of Alfred K Arthur, a former MLA planning to contest the upcoming general Lok Sabha elections from the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency on Congress ticket.
According to reports, the incident took place at LM Block in Ukhrul district where the intending candidate hosted a “One-day Zingtun Consultation on Political Journey: Lok Sabha Election 2024,” at the Mandap Hall around 12.30 pm on Tuesday where around 400 people converged to attend the programme.
A strong team of district police led by SDPO Ukhrul and troops of 35 Assam Rifles and BSF were also at the venue when the suspected armed militants fired gunshots. The police and security forces present there also fired back several rounds of shots in the air in a bid to flush out the armed militants and take control of the situation.
Reports further said that there was no casualty in the melee, reports said adding that the consultation programme also continued as per schedule undisturbed and ended as planned. Tuesday’s incident was the second time in which the armed militants tried to disturb the election campaign of the intending Congress candidate by firing gunshots.
Meanwhile, the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) questioned the possibility of conducting the upcoming elections in a free and fair manner in the backdrop of the repeated attacks at the poll campaign venue of the opposition party amidst the bad law and order condition prevailing in the State for the last more than 10 months.
MPCC president Keisham Meghachandra strongly condemned the repeated attacks and expressed apprehension of conducting the upcoming poll in a free and fair manner in troubled Manipur. He said that the law and order in the state was not good for the last more than 10 months since the ethnic crisis unfolded on May 3 last year.
He said that while there was no improvement in the law and order situation and people were worried of prevailing unrest when no concrete step to resolve the crisis was seen, the ECI had announced the poll scheduled for the two Lok Sabha seats in the State. “Violence begins when the election processes are yet to be started. In such conditions, can we expect free and fair elections in the state,” the MPCC president asked addressing mediapersons at Congress Bhavan in Imphal on March 20 evening.
He further asked whether the CEO Manipur under the ECI will be able to conduct a free and fair election in the state. If the elections are not in a position to conduct in a free and fair manner and voters will not be able to exercise their democratic rights of franchise, he added.
Taking serious note of the firings, the legal department of Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has also lodged a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manipur on March 20.
Notably, sources said that the Manipur DGP has ordered the deployment of 13 security personnel to guard Congress leader Alfred Kanngam Arthur after unidentified gunmen opened fire on at least two of his public meetings.
Unfortunately, amidst the violent conflict that has been going on since May 3 last year that has claimed more than 221 lives of which 198 were civilians including 20 women and 8 children, and 61,387 persons have been internally displaced, violence casts over the Parliamentary Election campaign in Manipur.
Senior Editor: Imphal Review of Arts and Politics
