Voting for the first phase of Assembly elections in Manipur has begun.
Voting is underway at 38 Assembly constituencies in the first phase of Manipur elections.
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Electoral fate of as many as 173 candidates, including 15 women, will be locked on Monday.
Polling for the first phase of Manipur elections is underway amid several incidents of violence.
Large number of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel have been deployed for the polling.
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Voting for the first phase of elections begun on Monday at 1721 polling stations.
Polling began at 7 in the morning on Monday for the first phase of Manipur elections.
In the first phase of Manipur elections, there are a total of 12,22,713 voters including 29,276 women.
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Manipur state witnessed several incidents of violence in the past few days killing two people and injuring many, including a candidate and a candidate’s father.
Development, militancy, illegal trade of drugs, repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), women empowerment, rising unemployment and corruption were the main issues highlighted by the political parties in their campaign.
In Monday’s polling, the electoral fate of Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh, his cabinet colleague Th Biswajit Singh, NPP candidate and deputy CM Yumnam Joykumar Singh, senior BJP leader Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, Congress’ Ratankumar Singh, Lokeshwar Singh, Saratchandra Singh, sitting party MLA Akoijam Mirabai Devi are at stake.
Firebrand women leader and Janata Dal (United) candidate Thounaojam Brinda, who was the Additional Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), is also contesting in the first phase of polling from the Yaiskul constituency.
The BJP, which had secured 21 seats in the 60-member Assembly in the last Assembly polls in 2017 and wrested the power for the first time, stitching together a coalition government with the support of four NPP MLAs, four Naga People’s Front (NPF) members.
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However, this time the BJP, NPP and the NPF are contesting separately and have put-up candidates against each other.
Congress, which governed the state for 15 consecutive years (2002-2017) and emerged as the single largest party by securing 28 seats in the 2017 poll, this time formed a Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance (MPSA) after forging a pre-poll alliance with four Left parties and Janata Dal-Secular.