To be near the power centre : Staying 'relevant'
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 02, 2021 -

Stay relevant. And to be relevant it is necessary to be in power.

This is the line of thinking that has long plagued the mindset of the people who have taken up politics as a career.

Join politics and if elected become a Minister or at the least be near the power centre, which in other words could be taken to mean, be in the party which is in power.

The formula is simple enough.

If the party in which one gets elected to the Assembly fails to secure the majority and one has to sit on the Opposition bench, then the next best thing to do is switch allegiance and join the party which is in power.

But there is the 10th Schedule of the Constitution which prohibits party hopping and Manipur has seen this via the by elections held in five Assembly segments last year.

Govindas Konthoujam then is not the first Congman to switch allegiance to the saffron party in Manipur and the interesting question is whether the move of the man from Bishnupur Assembly Constituency would open the proverbial floodgates with more Congress MLAs waiting to follow suit.

Only time will tell, but the talks doing the round that more from the Congress are set to join the saffron party cannot be merely dismissed with the wave of the hand.

What is beyond any doubt is the point that this is a calculated move from the man from Bishnupur Assembly Constituency and here it is significant to note that the move to the BJP from the Congress was staged at New Delhi and not Imphal.

So many things may be read into this, in the sense that the switch of loyalty has been done with the blessings from the people who matter in the BJP at the National level.

Taking it from Manipur to New Delhi and surely the saffron party has shown that it is willing to spare time for any move that is initiated to deal another blow to the Congress here in Manipur.

It was not so much a question of will he but more a question of when the move would be formalised and Govindas Konthoujam scripted his switch to the BJP in such a way that may be said to be refreshing.

Refreshing in the sense that the man from Bishnupur Assembly Constituency first quit from his post in the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee, then later quit from the primary membership of the Congress and from the State legislature as well before formally joining the BJP.

This is a point to be taken but then again this may also be a reflection of what one expects from the lot of so called elected leaders.

Clear that the BJP has started to prepare well for the upcoming Assembly elections and with the Congress now down though not entirely out, the party must be rolling up its sleeves to deal more blows on the oldest political party in the country.

It is also with a sense of disappointment to see the Congress down to such a level, after ruling Manipur for the greater part of the period since attaining Statehood in 1972.

Out of power for just one term or five years and if this is the situation that the party finds itself in today, then it may not be entirely wrong to say that the Congress never did take roots here in Manipur in the real sense of the term.