Rahul’s visits to Manipur pay Congress dividends in North-East

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, June 5

Though much is being said about former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s two “yatras” and how it created a groundswell of support for the party, his visits to strife-torn Manipur and how these impacted the poll results in the state has escaped media attention.

Rahul first visited Manipur in June last year when the Meitei-Kuki clashes had engulfed the state. He again went to Imphal in January this year as the “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra” programme led by him took off from Manipur. The concern shown by Rahul paid off as the Congress won both seats in Manipur.

It also put up a good show in other north-eastern states, showing that the impact of Rahul’s two visits spread beyond Manipur. The Congress won the solitary Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland. It once again won one seat in Meghalaya, this time in the Garo Hills. In Assam, the party’s tally stood at three, the same as in 2019.

The performance by the Congress in the north-eastern states also had a Punjabi flavour to it as the AICC screening committee for the cluster consisting the eastern states, including the NE states, was headed by Rana KP Singh, former Punjab Assembly Speaker. A Bimol Akoijam, a JNU professor who was given the ticket by the Congress for the Inner Manipur seat, disregarding claims made by many other aspirants, won by a margin of more than one lakh votes over his nearest rival T Basanta Kumar Singh of the BJP.

Akoijam gained popularity by putting up a counter narrative to the arguments put forward by Kuki intellectuals to drive home the Kuki point of view in the context of the ongoing Meitei-Kuki clash in Manipur. Educated Meiteis, including students, voted for Akoijam. Congress candidate Alfred Kanngam S Arthur won from the Outer Manipur seat by defeating his nearest rival from the Naga Peoples Front by over 85,000 votes. “The results reflect the utter disillusionment of the people of Manipur with regard to the BJP-led government in the state and the Centre,” said Rana.

Won both seats in strife-torn state

• Cong has won both seats in Manipur and the solitary seat in Nagaland
• Assam: The party won three seats, the highlight being Rakibul Hussain’s 10 lakh-vote margin over AIDUF’s Badruddin Ajmal
• Meghalaya: Cong’s Saleng A Sangma defeated CM Conrad Sangma’s sister Agatha Sangma from Tura