IMPHAL, September 29: Yumnam Thambou, the candidate of the Manipur Pradesh Trinamool Congress has been rejected from contesting the Hiyanglam bye-election.
According to an official notification from Kakching SDC Th Chitaranjeet, the returning officer designate in the bye-poll, Yumnam Thambou, the candidate of the MPTC has been rejected after the thorough scrutiny of all the nomination papers today.
Consequently, only five candidates now remain in the fray for the Hiyanglam bye-election on October 17.
the returning officer held the screening today at the DRDA conference hall of Thoubal DC office.
The five candidates still remainint in the fray are, AITC candidate, Yumnam Radheshyam, INC candidate, Elangbam Dwijamani, BJP candidate, M. Dhanabir, MPP candidate, M. Amutomba and MSCP candidate, Th. Laiba.
The withdrawal of the nomination will be held on October 1.
The election will be held on October 17 and the counting of the votes will be held on October 20.
All 34 polling stations of the constituency has been declared hyper sensitive. The least number of voters is polling station 38/34, Thounaojam (SW). The polling station has a total of 406 voters, out of which 206 are male voters and 200 are female. And the P/S with most voters is 38/13 Lamjao Girls LP School.
The P/S has a total of 1140 voters with 562 male vote and 578 female voters.
Briefing media persons at the party office in Moirangkhom after the scrutiny of the candidates, MPTCC president Thounaojam Shyamkumar said the confusion created in the minds of the people of the State, especially the people of Hiyanglam Assembly Constituency regarding the two group of the Trinamool Congress has been cleared beyond doubt by the returning officer.
The Kh Joykisan led MPTC has failed to field a candidate in the Hiyanglam bye-poll after the rejection of their candidate, he said appealing the people of Hiyanglam to elect Dr Yumnam Radheshyam contesting the election on an AITC ticket now that the confusion has gone.
MPTCC legislator Dr I Ibohalbi said: `Today, the returning officer has on his own discretion determined the genuine AITC candidate during the scrutiny of the nomination papers. The party will now intensify its election campaign being fought on the agenda of saving the territorial integrity of the state and enacting a law for implementation of ILP.`
Now, the party will take any positive actions in public interests and will refrain from washing the dirty linens of any other political party as we will only concentrate on retaining the Hiyanglam AC seat, he added.
AITC candidate Dr Yumnam Radheshyam said that he joined the MPTCC after finding out which party was the genuine Trinamool Congress.
Even if theTrinamool Congress is splintered into two separate groups in the State, the real party has now been identified by the Election commission during the scrutiny, he added.
Meanwhile, the Manipur Pradesh Trinamool Congress led by Kh Joykisan called a press meet at the Manipur Press Club regarding the rejection of their candidate Yumnam Thambou Singh from the Hiyanglam bye-poll.
The counsel of the MPTC, Aribam Gautam Sharma said that the rejection of the MPTC is a violation of the order by the civil judge (junior division) court Imphal to maintain the status quo.
The returning officer of the Hiyanglam bye-poll gave only two reasons for rejecting the MPTC candidate. The first being that MPTC is not included in the Manipur gazetted notification under ECI and the second being the non inclusion of the party in the website for Form A authorised by Mukul Roy, Gautam Sharma added.
`The returning officer has erroneously rejected the MPTC candidate from contesting the bye-poll, so we will go to an appropriate forum to raise a case against this gross violation of a court order`, the MPTC counsel said.
Meanwhile, Manipur State Congress Party candidate Thokchom Laiba survived a scare and was allowed to contest in the bye-election even though the party had claimed to have merged with the Indian National Congress with five of all its MLAs.
The party now is recognized with Adim Pamei as the president.