IMPHAL, Jan 19: With an objective to conduct peaceful and successful by-election to the 18-Konthoujam Assembly Constituency which is scheduled to be held on Febraury 14 in 28 polling stations of the constituency, a general coordinating meeting was convened today chaired by the state CEO Lwamkunga IAS at the conference hall of the Manipur Secretariat South Block.
According to an official source, the official coordinating meeting which was attended by concerned officials of the administrative department of the Imphal West discussed various issues related to the deployment of security and monitoring of the election model code of conduct.
It may be mentioned that, following the vacancy of the Konthoujam Assembly Constituency seat in the aftermath of the sudden demised of late Dr. Sapam Budhichandra former Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly during the last part of September last year, Election Commission of India has fixed the date of poll for the said bye election to the constituency on February 14 next month very recently.
On the other hand with the fixation of poll date for the bye election to the Konthoujam A/C the election model code of conduct had been put into effect throughout the Imphal West district from January 12 last.
In the meantime, the general coordinating meeting has also discussed the deployment of Central Paramilitary and Civil police at both the sensitive and hyper sensitive polling stations of the constituency during the bye-election into the said constituency. Besides, there will be heavy deployment of security forces from both state and central Para military forces on the eve of the poll on February 14 in all 28 polling stations and Electronic Voting Machines EVMs will also be utilized in all polling stations.
The last date of filling of nomination paper has been set for January 28 with scrutiny of nominations to be done on January 29. The last date of withdrawal of candidatures to the Konthoujam A/C bye election with a total of 24890 voters including 12,163 male and 12,727 female voters has been set for January 31 while counting will begin on February 17.
In the meantime, only three aspirant candidates including the son of late Dr. Sapam Budhichandra former sitting MLA, Dr Sapam Ranjan and two others Konthoujan Sharat Singh and Khangembam Ranjit of Khumbong are on active election campaigning.
However, Dr S. Ranjan will be contesting the bye election from a Congress Ticket was made clear with official declaration from concerned party officials, while Konthoujan Sharat is likely to contest from a Trinamool Congress Ticket but as for the third aspiring candidate it is not yet certain as from which party he will be fighting the bye election.
