Year into strife, no Kuki yet in reserved Manipur seat race

Groups, parties representing community ask members to stay away, try to find ‘consensus candidate’

THE RIPPLE effect of the nearly year-long ethnic strife in Manipur is now being felt in the Lok Sabha polls. With nominations for the first phase of polls closing on Wednesday, there is still no member of the Kukizomi community in the fray from the Outer Manipur seat, which votes across the first and second phases (April 19, 26).

At least since 2009, a Kuki candidate has always fought the election from the Lok Sabha seat. The ethnic strife in Manipur has pitted the Kukis against the dominant Meitei community in the state.

On Monday evening, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum – an influential Kukizomi group – issued an “advisory notice” urging people from the community not to file nominations “considering the plight they were facing”, even as encouraging people to vote.

The Kuki People’s Alliance, a party floated in 2022 with an aim to politically represent the interests of the community, which has two MLAS in the Assembly, has also decided against fielding candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

“Efforts are on to field a 'consensus candidate' from the community. The situation is delicate and we do not have winning numbers. The exercise will be futile if a lot of people contest. We have to be calculative as we do not have the support of any major party. We have more or less concluded that we should not field a candidate as we will not get 100% of Kuki votes. If we contest, other smaller outfits may also want to contest,” the party’s general secretary, Lalam Hangshing, told The Indian Express.

Thangminlen Kipgen, spokesperson of the Kuki Inpi Manipur – the apex body of Kuki tribes in the state – said many factors were behind the community’s decision not to contest the polls.

“It (not contesting polls) is not a form of protest, but our right to vote and contest have been compromised. Around 30% of the community’s votes are from people who have fled the valley, but there is no provision to address this issue. In such a situation, it is not wise or correct to feld a candidate… There is little chance of winning,” he said.

Kipgen said the community

preferred to stay away from a “Naga versus Kuki contest”. “We do not want to create animosity with our Naga brothers in the current time of crisis,” he said.

Manipur has two Lok Sabha seats – Inner Manipur, which votes in the second phase on April 26, and Outer Manipur. Inner Manipur comprises 32 of the 60 Assembly segments in the state comprising the Meitimajority valley district, while Outer Manipur is reserved for

Scheduled Tribes (STS) and covers the hill districts and parts of Thoubal and Jiribam districts. It has, in the past, elected MPS from the Naga and Kuki-zomi communities, the two major tribal groups in the state.

To account for the mass displacement triggered by the Meiti-kuki conflict, now on since May 3 last year, the Election Commission (EC) has made provisions for people to vote in the relief camps they are living in. Special polling stations will be set up for this, outside territorial limits of constituencies.

There are an estimated 23,000-25,000 displaced voters in the state.

So far, no party has fielded candidates from the Kuki-zomi community nor has any Independent expressed interest in contesting the polls. Both the Congress and NDA have named Naga candidates from Outer Manipur -- former Ukhrul MLA Alfred K Arthur, and retired Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Kachui Timothy Zimik, respectively. Zimik is a candidate of BJP ally Naga People’s Front (NPF). Another NDA constituent, the Conrad Sangma-led National People’s Party (NPP), has declared support for Zimik.

The seat is currently represented by a Naga leader, Lorho Pfoze of the NPF. Earlier, the Congress’s Thangso Baite, a Kuki-zo leader from Churachandpur, was elected from the seat in 2009 and 2014.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) were among the parties which had fielded candidates from the Kuki-zomi community in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.