In a shift from ‘tradition’, Cong. won’t project CM face in Manipur

MLAs will decide Chief Minister after the party’s victory, says State party chief Nameirakpam Loken Singh

The Manipur Congress has made a departure from the past by not projecting anyone as the candidate for the chief minister post if it wrests power from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Party leaders said that in doing so, it had conveyed its shift from “tradition” for returning to power “comfortably”. The Congress had approached the 2017 Assembly polls with Okram Ibobi Singh as its chief ministerial candidate who handled the top job for a record 15 years since 2002. Konthoujam Govindas, the former State party president, was seen by some as a competitor until he defected to the BJP ahead of the elections.

“The Chief Minister face has not been decided this time. The MLAs will decide after the party’s victory because we are confident of bagging 32 seats [out of a maximum 60] and returning to power,” State party president Nameirakpam Loken Singh, seeking re-election from the Nambol constituency, told The Hindu.

He attributed the confidence to the BJP’s “abject failure” in providing good governance, implementing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and not giving jobs to the youth in the last five years. Funds from the Central sector schemes were also diverted in the name of the COVID-19 pandemic, he alleged.

The Congress had won 28 seats in 2017 but failed to cobble up an alliance. The BJP, with 21 seats, forged an alliance with the National People’s Party (NPP) and other parties to form the government.

But many MLAs defected to the BJP over the years, leaving the Congress with only 13.