New Delhi: Polling in the violence-ridden Manipur on April 19 witnessed a series of untoward incidents including a senior citizen sustaining bullet injuries while queuing up for voting in the Imphal East parliamentary constituency.
According to local news reports, the voter, identified as 75-year-old Khoisnam Sanayaima, was hit by a bullet in a 3/11 polling station located in the Moirang Kampu Sajeb upper primary school that falls under the Khurai assembly constituency. An Imphal Free Press report said the incident took place on April 19 around 1:50 p.m.
Quoting his family members, the news report said. “Five people came in a silver-coloured XUV car (to the polling station). While two of them went inside the polling station, the rest remained in the car.”
“The sound of heated arguments with the agents was heard from inside the polling station. Then, the two (men) were seen running out from (of) the polling station while the others (polling agents) were trying to catch them.”
As per the report, soon “two-three rounds of gunshots were fired from the car which hit the right side of Sanayaima’s lower back. The incident led to the dispersal of the voters in the area and voting in the polling station could not be continued as planned.”
Thereafter, the enraged voters present at the polling station “set ablaze the EVM and VVPAT machines of the polling station.”
Later, a press note issued by the state police said three persons were arrested in connection with the incident. Some arms, i-phones and cash were seized from their possession. “The helpless polling officials along with the security personnel on duty at the polling station left the spot immediately,” said The Ukhrul Times.
Meanwhile, news of several polling stations captured by armed miscreants was reported from various areas of the Imphal East Constituency. Several such clips have been circulating on social media. Many fingers have been pointed at the role played by Aramabai Tenggol, an armed overground Meitei outfit seen close to chief minister N Biren Singh and the BJP Rajya Sabha member Sanajaoba.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is aiming at a second consecutive win in the Imphal East constituency.
Following the nearly-year-long ethnic strife in the north-eastern state in which several people have lost lives and thousands displaced, there is considerable public anger against the ruling party from both the Meitei and the Kuki communities. During the recent visit of the Union home minister Amit Shah to the state to campaign for his party in the Inner Manipur seat, a large number of women and youth were seen hitting the streets in Imphal condemning it.
In the Imphal East LS seat, BJP’s Basanta Kumar, a senior minister in the Biren Singh government, is pitted against Congress’ Bimol Akoijam as the joined candidate of the INDIA bloc.
In a video clip circulating on social media since the April 19 evening, Akoijam was seen complaining to senior police officials about his polling agent being threatened by armed miscreants at a booth in Imphal and thereby forcing him to flee the place, leading to booth capturing. The senior police officials were seen at first refusing to accept his complaint.
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Later, the state Congress unit filed a complaint with the chief election officer of the state, alleging booth capturing and violation of the electoral procedures in as many as 36 polling booths of the Inner Manipur LS constituency, and in 11 polling booths in the Sugnu area of the Outer Manipur LS constituency. Congress’s Alfred Arthur is pitted against Timothy Zimik of the Naga People’s Front, an ally of the BJP, in the Outer Manipur seat. Voting in the Outer Manipur seat is being held in two phases; the last phase is on April 26.
According to news reports, MPCC president K Meghachandra, at a press meet held in Imphal on April 19 evening, expressed concerns over “the unprecedented mass violence and boot capturing incidents during the election in the valley region of Manipur.”
“He emphasised that such occurrences are the first of their kind in the state and are happening under the double-engine government,” stated the Imphal Free Press.
Meghachandra told reporters that all the polling agents of the Congress at the 36 polling stations “received threats from armed miscreants allegedly adopted by the BJP. Some agents even reported being assaulted…but refrained from lodging complaints due to fear of retaliation.”
Urging the election commission to conduct re-poll in the 36 polling stations, Meghachandra told reporters, “Right to vote has been snatched by the double engine government. Where is the meaning of democracy if electors are unable to cast their votes in the election?”
On asked about the allegations about the involvement Aramabai Tenggol in booth capturing, Chanthoi, a leader of the Meitei women’s organisation, Meira Paibi, told The Wire, “Yes, I do believe such a thing has happened.” She accused “top political forces” of “engineering the ongoing conflict in the state for the elections”.
“Democracy has totally failed; there is no point in conducting elections,” she said.
The Meitei woman leader also added, “The central government wants power at any cost; it is the Narendra Modi government that has made the conflict prolong for so long.”
There has been considerable anger in both the Meitei and the Kuki communities for Prime Minister Modi bypassing a visit to Manipur even though the people of the state had voted for the BJP in the last assembly elections for the party to gain full majority for the first time.
Meanwhile, Kuki voters in the Outer Manipur LS constituency were seen abstaining from voting on April 19. Tahngtilen Haokip, leader of the Kuki community associated with the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), justified the decision to The Wire, “When two of our village volunteers were killed in Phailengmol areas in defence of our land (This past April 13) in an inhuman and brutal manner, how can we go to vote? Election is not more important for us this time than the fact that our brothers were killed by the Meteis. I would say, it is not boycott of the elections but abstaining from it.”
In press statements, COTU had claimed that the two Kuki village volunteers “were gunned down by Meitei militants in collusion with members of central security forces.”
