Manipur Polls: Voting for Phase-1 concludes in 38 constituencies

In Manipur, voting concluded  for the First of the Two-Phase polling of Assembly Elections on Monday. A total of 173 candidates were in the fray across 38 seats in the first phase of Manipur elections. As per information, Manipur logs 67.22% voter turnout till 3 pm in first phase of assembly polls, One seat is reserved for Scheduled Castes and eight seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. These districts include Imphal East and West, Bishnupur, Pherzawl, Churchandpur and Kangpokpi district.  Maximum eight candidates are vying for three seats including Sekmai, Saikot and Saikul while there is a direct fight between the BJP and Congress candidates in three constituencies including Heingang, Nambol and Thanga. The total number of eligible electors for this phase is 12,09,439 including 5,80,607 male, 6,28,657 female and 175 third gender voters. in all, 1,721 Polling Stations have been set up in the concerned constituencies for their convenience.  

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its candidates on all the 38 seats going to polls in this phase. The Congress-led Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance, which comprises the leftist parties including CPI, CPI (M), RSP and Forward Block along with Janata Dal (Secular), is contesting 36 seats together. Out of these, Congress has put up 35 candidates while CPI has one candidate. Janata Dal (United), which is going in for the polls without any alliance, has fielded 28 candidates while National Peoples' Party has 27 candidates. Shivsena has fielded seven, Nationalist Congress Party and Republican Party of India (Athawale) have six each along with Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) has three candidates. In addition, Kuki National Assembly and Kuki Peoples' Alliance have two candidates each while 18 independents are also in fray. The prominent BJP candidates in this phase include Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, Assembly Speaker Y. Khemchand, Minister Thongam Biswajit Singh, former Ministers Nemcha Kipgen and V. Hangkhanglian. Deputy Chief Minister Y. Joykumar is among the prominent candidates of National Peoples' Party while those from Congress include former Speaker T. N. Haokip and Party State Unit Chief N. Loken Singh.