In Monday’s first phase of the Manipur Assembly elections, 38 seats will vote in five districts: Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Churachandpur, and Kangpokpi. These seats are spread across these five districts.
39 candidates have criminal records out of all the candidates in Manipur, says the Chief Electoral Officer of Manipur, Rajesh Agarwal.
A total of 173 people, including 15 women, are running for the poll held tomorrow.
Party-wise, the Bharatiya Janata Party has 38 candidates, while the Indian National Congress has 35 candidates in the race.
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The Janata Dal (United) has run against 28 candidates. “A total of 12,09,439 voters, including 5,80,607 male, 6,28,657 female, and 175 transgender voters, are in Phase-I.
They will vote at 1,721 polling places. There are 10,041 people with disabilities and 251 people who are at least 100 years old in these 38 assembly districts,” Agrawal told us.
People can vote during voting, which starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m.
People who have COVID or are in quarantine will be able to vote at the last minute, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
All-women staff will be at 381 polling stations, and people with disabilities (PwD) staff will be at one polling station in Saikot.
Also, it has been said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has stopped using photo voter slips as ID proof.
Voters will now need to show one of 12 approved IDs, such as their Aadhaar Card, MNREGA Job Card, Passbooks with a picture from a bank or post office, health insurance smart cards from the Ministry of Labour, driving license, PAN Card, and so on.
It came to an end in Manipur on Saturday. Manipur will vote for its 60-member assembly in two stages, on February 28 and March 5.
First, 38 seats will go to the polls. Then, voting will take place in 22 more seats.
India’s main party, the BJP, took over the government in Manipur in 2017. It got help from the NPP, NPF, and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
However, the BJP decided to go it alone and is running for all 60 seats alone this time.
On the other hand, Congress has allied with six other political groups and called it the Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance (MPSA).
MPSA is made up of the Congress, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), and the Janata Dal (Secular).
There were elections for the Manipur Assembly in 2017, and the Congress came out on top with 28 seats.
Congress got 35.11% of the votes, but the BJP got 36.28%, which is more than the other party.
The BJP came in second with 21 seats. Four seats went to the National People’s Party (NPP) and the Naga People’s Front (NPF).
Only one seat went to the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Later, the BJP formed a coalition with the NPP, the NPF, and the LJP to run the country.
Biren Singh was in charge of the government, which he led.
