The smaller parties in Manipur are virtually engaged in a race for attention after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) notched up a clear majority in the just-concluded Assembly election.
—The BJP won 32 seats in the 60-member House and two independent candidates – media baron Sapam Nishikant who won the Keishamthong seat and Haokholet Kipgen (Saitu seat) — have formally pledged support.
The parties fighting to be the “best friends” of the BJP are the National People’s Party (NPP) with seven seats, the Janata Dal (United) with six and the Naga People’s Front (NPF) with five.
The newly-floated Kuki People’s Alliance that won two seats has not made its intention clear yet. Neither has another independent winner, J. Kumo Sha.
The Congress won the remaining five seats.
The NPP, the JD(U) and the NPF have underlined their National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) link to be counted as the BJP’s allies.
The JD(U) and the BJP are partners at the Centre and in Bihar while the NPP and the NPF are members of the NDA as well as anti-Congress NEDA that the BJP has been helming since 2016.
NPP head and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma justified contesting elections without any pre-poll alliance with the BJP despite his party being an NDA member.
“We always fight polls alone but go for an alliance in case of a fractured verdict. The ball is in the BJP’s court after the clear mandate in Manipur but we have let our new MLAs take the call on extending support,” he said.
Khumukcham Joykishan, elected the JD(U)’s legislature party leader, said his party had decided to support the BJP. “As an NDA partner, it is natural for us to support the BJP in forming the new government. But whether or not we will be part of the government is up to the BJP,” he said.
NPF leader Losii Dikho, who won the Mao seat, said (caretaker) Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh had requested his party to support the new BJP government in Manipur. “We have decided to continue supporting the BJP because of our good relations,” he said.
The NPP and the NPF, which had won four seats each in 2017, became partners in the alliance government headed by Mr. Singh. But mid-term differences cropped up between the NPP and the BJP with the former walking out of the government temporarily.
The NPF, too, fell out of favour in the adjoining Nagaland but returned to the NEDA fold after joining the Neiphiu Rio government in that State. The BJP is a minor ally of Mr, Rio’s Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party.
