For Meitei hearts, votes, BJP revives the forgotten King

THIS IS the first time that the titular head of Manipur has endorsed a candidate in an election. The 78th ‘King of Manipur’, Ningthou Leishamba Sanajaoba, on Wednesday sat beside BJP president Amit Shah at the party’s last rally before the state votes in the first phase of polls on March 4. While he did not make a speech, there was a flurry of excitement as he made his way to the stage, and later shook hands with Shah.

As Shah folded his hands to show respect to the scion of a 2,000-year-old dynasty, a person in the crowd remarked: “He has done well... to show respect to the Ningthou (King) is to show respect to the people of Manipur.’’

Sanajaoba seldom makes public appearances. He is occasionally spotted at cultural performances or weddings. And he has, so far, always kept away from political events. “I was never really invited,’’ he says. Long forgotten, like the crumbling palace in which he lives, he was but a mere shadow of a presence in Manipur’s modern landscape. Then on February 25, he was invited to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting in Imphal, where he delivered his first speech at a political rally.

“On behalf of all communities and ethnic groups living in utmost suffering in the hills and the valley, I, a King in name only, having been deprived of royal grandeur, would like to say that the NSCN(IM) has created fear and suspicion in the minds of Manipuris that the unity and integrity of Manipur might be broken. It is my humble request to Narendra Modiji to remove all

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Oinam Anand Amit Shah with Ningthou Leishamba Sanajaoba at a rally in Imphal on Wednesday.