Friday, April 10, 2009

Poll Comments, Outer : Triangular fight among 9 candidates

Imphal, Apr 9: With only four days left to the countdown of the 15th Lok Sabha election in the Outer Manipur Parliamentary slated for April 16, the voltage of election fever is ever rising high. Mention may be made here that, six aspiring candidates from Chin-Kuki community and three Naga candidates are in the fray for the lone Outer Manipur Parliamentary seat. However, the tough fight is likely to be triangular among D Loli Adanee of BJP, Thangso Baite of Congress and Mani Charenamei of People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) who is also the sitting MP.

Some interesting gossips or for that matter, assumption of people for these three parties worth pondering are – BJP is considered as anti-Christian party in the hills, Congress as anti-people and PDA, Naga centric and pro-NSCN(IM) party.

Chances for Mani Charenamei are that he is being backed by six PDA MLAs, UNC stalwarts and NSCN-IM, and have muscle powers being a sitting MP, whereas Loli Adanee has garnered support of a ‘Public Support Group’ consisting ex-Ministers, veteran politicians drawn from various political parties and above all, won the hearts of grassroots people with his sweet campaign tag ‘equitable distribution of funds and development’. This time round, political observers, however, feel most voters would take their decisions not on party line but on personal preference.

On the other hand, while the two heavy weight Naga candidates - Adanee and Mani are colliding head-on in the arena, the lesser known Congress candidate, Thangso Baite taking the chances cannot be written off.

A political analyst who prefers to remain anonymous opined that Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh’s ‘loose hands’ is suffice to get hold of Kuki militants which is now in ceasefire with the State Government, to work for Baite who hails from Churachandpur district.

On the other hand, analysts also felt that the allegations against Mani of mishandling development funds and his ‘vocal patriotic stance’ would be to his disadvantage in garnering the votes of non-Nagas. Mani’s opponents have on earlier instances alleged the former that the MP Fund meant for development were handled by ‘few people’ and have not reached the grassroots people. However, the MP has flatly refuted the charges terming it as a mere electioneering gimmick. The mathematics and readings of political observers though varies, one can conclude that the triangular fight would be tough and destiny of the candidates would have the final say.

Source: http://www.thesangaiexpress.com

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