Assembly election is still some time away but the BJP has already set the ball rolling. Not letting any single opportunity to land a blow or two on the State Government go by and ironic it is but it is the Congress Government itself which offered the perfect opportunity in deciding to scrap the DPC held in 2013 to recruit police Constables. What happened after the Government announced that the said DPC has been scrapped and a fresh DPC would be held, is there for all to see. The BJP may be seen to have sided with the 10,000 odd candidates who appeared for the 2013 DPC but in reality it was delivering a powerful political statement which has all the potential to impact on the upcoming polls. The Congress obviously has no one to blame but its own ineptness and maybe being in power for the third consecutive term has dulled its political astuteness. Obviously the BJP is on a high at the moment and it is to seize this opportunity that BJP National president Amit Shah has set a date with Manipur on September 15 when he is scheduled to meet party workers here. This is certain to give a boost to the BJP while it will hurt the interest of the Congress. While it would be foolhardy to read the election tea leaves at the moment, one thing that can be said with a degree of certainty is the point that the Congress will not do as well as in the 2012 Assembly election.
The fight will primarily be between the Congress and the BJP here, but there will be some other significant players at the hustings. In the Naga dominated hill districts of the State, the Naga People’s Front will have a big say and given that it is part of the BJP led NDA Government at the Centre, it may just about strike some sort of an understanding with the BJP here too. This is despite the earlier assertion of Himanta Biswa Sarma that the BJP will have no truck with other political parties at the hustings. So BJP, Congress and the NPF in the hills, especially in the Naga dominated districts and it is these political parties which will draw the attention of the people. Two National parties and one regional political party with its headquarters at Kohima, and the natural question that may be asked, is what has happened to the Manipur People’s Party ? The decline of the MPP has been gradual and from a party which once was the biggest challenge to the Congress, today, the MPP is nowhere there in sight, failing to send even one single MLA in the last Assembly election. Nothing to suggest that it will improve in the next Assembly election and today it has come to be identified as solely the party which has its head office behind the historic Mapal Kangjeibung.
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