BJP up against its own allies in contest for Manipur & Tripura

In the contest for the two seats from Manipur and Tripura going to the polls in the first phase, BJP is looking to secure its first victory and turn the tide.
Outer Manipur has almost consistently voted for Congress, irrespective of who was in power at the Centre. Likewise, Tripura West has nearly always been held by the Left Front, with Congress entering the mix in the 1990s but soon ceding ground to CPM again.

In both seats, BJP is going up against its NDA allies. JD (U) has fielded Hangkhanpau Taithul and National People’s Party has nominated Thangminlien Kipgen in ST-reserved Outer Manipur, where BJP has fielded Benjamin Mate. In Tripura West, despite BJP’s appeals, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) candidate has fielded its MLA from Simna, Brishketu Debbarma.

In Manipur, BJP has been harping on its development agenda, while attacking Congress for “corruption”. Congress’s Outer Manipur candidate, K James, is at the centre of a controversy over a loan default by a firm he was director of. Congress has countered by saying that since he has resigned from the firm, he should not be held responsible for the post any more.

Addressing two important issues — extra-judicial killings and custodial deaths, Congress has in its manifesto promised to amend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act to “strike a balance between the powers of security forces and the human rights of citizens” and “remove immunity for enforced disappearance, sexual violence torture. It has also promised a Prevention of Torture Act, prohibiting the use of third-degree methods during interrogation.

Congress has also positioned itself as a challenger to the “threat” to culture and free speech the saffron party poses. The detention of Manipur journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem, for instance, under the National Security Act for a post criticising Narendra Modi and Manipur CM N Biren Singh had been taken up by Congress at the national level. Party president Rahul Gandhi had written to Wangkhem, saying that “there’s no respect for freedom of speech in the BJP”.

JD (U) has been using a similar pitch. Its candidate Hangkhanpau has been very vocal in his criticism of BJP during his rallies, saying that the saffron party is “bad for peace” and that “they stand only to impose Hindu ideology”.

For JD (U) as well as Congress, taking an anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Bill stand in Parliament could be a move they could capitalize on now. Protests against the proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act, legitimizing non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan as Indian citizens, had swept the northeast for the two months preceding the announcement of Lok Sabha election. While BJP has said it will bring the bill back, Congress has promised in its manifesto to scrap it.

For BJP, another decisive issue in Manipur could be the Naga peace talks, at the centre of which lie a demand for the unification of Naga-dominated areas in Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh with Nagaland. Naga outfits have made it clear they will not be part of the process unless the demand is on the table, which puts BJP in a difficult position. In Manipur, the areas that would comprise ‘Greater Nagaland’ would include the Naga and Kuki-dominated hill districts in the Outer Manipur constituency, which makes up 40% of the state’s population and 90% of its geographical area.

In Tripura, what seemed like a direct contest between the Left and the Right quickly turned into a multi-cornered fight with a rejuvenated Congress and defiant IPFT entering the fray.

CPM has winning the seat since 1996. It has fielded incumbent MP Sankar Prasad Datta, who had won the 2014 Lok Sabha election by a margin of more than 5 lakh votes. Following its defeat in the assembly election last year, however, CPM is a spent force. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in his ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ address on Sunday said Odisha could see a Tripura-like reversal, using the obliteration of once-invincible CPM as an analogy for its improved prospects in the coastal state.

Congress drew a blank in the assembly election last year and was on the verge of complete erasure from the state’s political arena. Re-structuring of the Congress organization in Tripura, with royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarman, has led to the return of several leaders and the party is on a revival path. Contesting Tripura West is one such leader — former vice-president of BJP’s Tripura unit, Subal Bhowmik.

Up against him is BJP general secretary Pratima Bhowmik. BJP finds itself isolated after its ally IPFT disregarded its appeal to not contest the election. The other tribal party in the state, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura, meanwhile, has withdrawn from the race to support Congress.