BJP MLAs Y Irabot and M Rameshwar joined the National People’s Party (NPP) on Thursday after the BJP denied them tickets for the upcoming Manipur Assembly elections and fielded two Congress turncoats instead.
The two MLAs, representing the Wangkhei and Kakching constituencies respectively, were then given tickets to contest the polls by the NPP. At a reception for them, NPP chief and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said, “I am confident that the NPP will emerge as the single-largest party in the upcoming election,” Sangma said, adding that it was open to expanding the candidates list depending on the situation and incoming ticket aspirants’ backgrounds.
The NPP also announced its third list of candidates; the party has now candidates in 42 of the 60 seats.
When the BJP declared its candidates on January 30, it gave the tickets from three of its sitting seats to Congress turncoats. In Wangkhei, the party fielded former Congress chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s nephew, Okram Henry Singh. In Kakching, it put up former Congress MLA Y Surchandra Singh. And the third BJP MLA to lose his seat to a Congress turncoat, P Saratchandra of Moirang, joined the Congress.
Incidentally, Irabot was the first Congress MLA to join the BJP in 2016, to be followed by N Biren Singh, the current Manipur chief minister, along with Francis Ngajokpa.
The NPP chief said a common political platform for the northeastern states was needed to make the region prosperous. “The NPP is the right platform and the upcoming Manipur election is a big stepping stone,” Sangma said. “The national parties take decisions about Manipur and the Northeast from Delhi. But in the NPP, it is the leader from Manipur and the Northeast who will be deciding the future of the region,” he said.