BJP sweeps Manipur panchayat polls
IMPHAL: The results of the fifth general panchayat elections held in Manipur on October 7 were declared four days later. But the outcome was a set of numbers until chief minister N Biren Singh took to Twitter on Monday to break the “good news” for Bharatiya Janata Party.
Tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and party general secretary Ram Madhav, Biren tweeted: “In a clean sweep in Manipur, BJP wins all 6 Zila Parishad Adhaksha post. Manipur firmly with BJP now.”
Aides said what the chief minister meant was that the BJP swept the rural polls in six districts – Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Jiribam, Kakching and Thoubal – covering the plains of Manipur.
State election commission officials said though the poll results were declared over three days from October 9-11, the names of winning candidates and their party affiliations were published in the state gazette only now.
The panchayat elections, held to elect 60 Zilla Parishad members, 161 pradhans and 1,513 ward members in 14 subdivisions of these districts, assumed significance after the BJP and its regional partners ended 15 years of Congress rule in Manipur earlier this year.
The Congress had emerged the single largest party in the assembly election held in March. But the BJP, which won 21 seats, cobbled up an alliance and won a trust vote 32-27 in the 60-member House to form a coalition government. Though the Congress had won 28 seats, one of its MLAS – Th Shyamkumar – defected to the BJP. Just over a month later, four more Congress legislators joined the BJP.