Remove Patel-Prahlad Singh Patel-or I retire from party. More or less the exact words used by Th Chaoba, when he went hammer and tongs against the man who has been put in charge of Manipur. Comes closer to an open revolt than just an internal rift within the party. And this is precisely the reason why the higher ups in the BJP will not take this lightly. More likely that Th Chaoba may be given the marching orders for in openly demanding that Patel be removed from the post of Manipur-in-charge, the man from Utlou Assembly Constituency will be seen as revolting against the authority of the BJP. It is not the case of The Sangai Express to say whether what Th Chaoba has had to say had any substance or not, but the open revolt must have come like sweet music to Chief Minister O Ibobi and the Congress. Timing, this is essential in all political manoeuvring and the Chief Minister seems to have just received the much needed boost at the right time. While creating the seven new districts was a political master stroke and had everything to do with him what is happening within the BJP would have come something like God sent. Clearly lady luck continues to smile at the man from Thoubal Assembly Constituency. A divided house has never inspired confidence in the people and a divided BJP will certainly not inspire the people. Th Chaoba as an individual may not count much to the BJP as a political party, but the fact that there is today an open revolt against the man-in-charge of Manipur from within will count a lot, especially with Assembly election so close.
The Congress will lose no opportunity to nail the situation and work out plans to see how to milk the situation. Not good going for a party which is looking to nail the next State in the North East after Assam and this brings to mind the old observation that the enemy within is more lethal than the enemy outside and this is a point which should have registered in the minds of the BJP leaders a long time back. Now that situation has come to such a pass, it will be interesting to see how the BJP, as a political party, deal with the situation. The rise of the BJP in Manipur has been spectacular, particularly after it swept the Lok Sabha election in 2014 and the trickle down effect can be seen in the rapid rise of the party’s membership which has shot up to more than 4 lakhs from a mere 12,000 three or four years back. The credit for this obviously should go to the excellent showing of the party in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, but then one can never dismiss the point that this was when Th Chaoba was the State unit president of the BJP. What is happening in the BJP is no doubt an internal matter, but be sure that this cannot be dismissed as an internal affair, for what is happening inside a political party can go a long way in winning or losing the confidence of the people. One reason why the Congress must be beaming at the moment.
Source: The Sangai Express
