The second and final phase of polling across 22 Assembly seats in Manipur on Saturday recorded a voters’ turnout of 76.62% amid sporadic incidents of violence, claiming the life of a man in Senapati district’s Karong.
The man, believed to be a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter, was killed in police firing. This followed the death of a BJP worker, who was allegedly shot by a Congress worker in the Thoubal district on Friday night.
The polling was held across 11 constituencies in the hills dominated mostly by the Nagas, 10 in the primarily non-tribal Imphal valley and one in Jiribam valley bordering Assam.
Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Agrawal said polling in the Imphal valley was peaceful but 12 incidents of damage to electronic voting machines (EVM) by miscreants was reported from the hill districts. First Information Reports (FIR) were registered in connection with all the incidents, he added.
“The incident, unfortunately, got escalated leading to serious injuries to two persons, who were immediately evacuated by chopper to Imphal for treatment. However, one of them sadly succumbed on the way,” Mr Agrawal said, without providing the details of the Karong incident.
In a complaint lodged with the Returning Officer for Karong, the BJP candidate’s election agent Ngaoni R. James said “Indian security forces” deployed for election duty had fired at two persons, K. Longvao and V. Saope, without giving any proper reason, instruction or warning.
“Due to gunshot, Longvao lost his life. Saope was severely injured and battling for his life. Therefore, you are requested to take immediate action or else the situation could escalate,” he wrote.
In the Thoubal incident, the Congress worker had allegedly fired at a group of BJP workers who had attacked his house. One of the injured, identified as Leimapokpam Amuba, succumbed to injuries at a local hospital.
Polling in the Ukhrul district, the epicentre of Naga politics, was marked by the detonation of two bombs. No one was injured but Leishio Keishing, a senior politician, claimed he was the target. “I escaped miraculously as we had taken a shortcut,” he said.
The Election Commission of India (EC) received some complaints from some political parties and candidates during polling and the Chief Election Officer said re-poll, if any, would be decided accordingly.
The election in the Heirok seat of the Imphal valley was conducted keeping in mind the High Court of Manipur's directive on March 4. Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an investigation into minors enrolled as voters, the court had asked the authorities concerned to check at least two documents to prove the age of voters who seem to be 18 years old.
The second phase of polling covered six districts — Thoubal, Jiribam, Chandel, Ukhrul, Senapati and Tamenglong. Re-polling was also held in 12 polling stations under five constituencies of three other districts where voting was conducted in the first phase on February 28.
The turnout in the first phase of polling across the 38 constituencies was 88.63%.
