Protests, resignations in Manipur after BJP announces candidates' list

Ticket aspirants of the ruling BJP and their supporters burnt effigies of central and state party leaders torched party flags banners and posters and allegedly forced the closure of few party offices and shouted slogans in different parts of Manipur as protests erupted on Sunday after the party announced 60 candidates for the forthcoming assembly pollsThe BJP leaders in Imphal denied any largescale protests saying that some minor discontent were expressed by some party men and these are all manageableAccording to some sources BJP party offices were ransacked in different parts of the state including state capital Imphal Kakching Sagolband and several other assembly constituencies after the names of the candidates were announced in DelhiApprehending the possible protests after the announcement of the names of the candidates the police authorities have tightened the security and deployed additional force for about a week in the state BJP headquarters in Imphal and few other districts preventing the largescale attacks and incidentsThe security of the partys state president A Sharda Devi ministers and MLAs was heightenedPolice officials remained tightlipped over the series of incidents and protests took place on Sunday after the announcements of the BJP candidates for the elections to the 60member Manipur Assembly on February 27 and March 3Some party functionaries and ticket aspirants expecting the nominations of the party in the ensuing elections including Lourembam Sanjoy Singh and Thangjam Arunkumar have resigned from the party on Saturday and Sunday though their exact number remained unclearAt least 10 of the 16 former Congress leaders who joined the BJP in recent years were given tickets as the ruling party announced to contest in all 60 seats without any alliance with any partyChief Minister N Biren Singh would contest from his traditional seat in Heingang while another important minister Biswajit Singh would fight from Thongju seatFormer national footballer Somatai Saiza would compete from UkhrulFormer Manipur Congress chief who joined the BJP few months back Govindas Konthoujam has also got a saffron party ticket to contest the electionThe BJP has fielded three women Nemcha Kipgen SS Olish and Soraisam Kebi Devi and one Muslim candidateBJP sources said that most loyalists of the Chief Minister have been nominated by the partyThe BJP has also put up three former IAS officers Dinganglung Gangmei Yengkhom Surchandra Singh and Raghumani Singh as party candidatesMeanwhile National VicePresident of National Peoples Party NPP and Manipur Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar Singh said that his party would try to nominate those leaders rejected by the BJP for the coming electionWith four MLAs the NPP is an ally of the BJPled government however the party already announced to fight the polls on its ownThe NPP headed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma however announced to contest the elections on its own this time and would field candidates in at least 40 seatsThe NPP a national political party which has political bases in different northeastern states had contested nine seats in 2017 and won fourAnother ally of the BJPled government the Naga Peoples Front NPF is still undecided on a prepoll alliance in ManipurThe BJP has recently asked its possible candidates to give a written undertaking to prevent them from joining other parties when they are not given ticketsThe BJP which had bagged 21 seats in 2017 came to power for the first time stitching together a coalition government with the support of four NPP MLAs four NPF members the lone Trinamool Congress MLA and an Independent memberThe Congress despite emerging as the singlelargest party with 28 seats was ousted from power after 15 years in the last assembly polls 2017This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever