Manipur Assembly Elections 2017: Campaigning for final phase to end today at 3 PM

On Mar 6, 2017

Manipur Assembly Elections 2017: Campaigning for final phase to end today at 3 PM; all eyes on CM Okram Ibobi, Irom Sharmila

Imphal, Mar 6: All the publicity and campaigning for phase 2 of the Manipur Assembly Elections 2017 will come to an end today at 3 pm. A total of 98 candidates from 13 political parties, including 5 national parties, 4 state parties unrecognised parties and 9 independent candidates, are contesting in the second phases of Manipur Assembly Elections to be held on March 8, 2017. 22 assembly constituencies spread across six districts will go to polls in this phase on Wednesday. The six districts going to polls in Manipur phase 2 are Chandel, Imphal East, Senapati, Tamenglong, Thoubal and Ukhrul.
Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi is contesting in Thoubal assembly constituency in the second phase of the election. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Leitanthem Basanta Singh will contest against CM Ibobi. The phase 2 polling will also witness the ‘Iron Lady of Manipur’ lrom Sharmila Chanu contesting against Ibobi. “People want to see change and we are confident to bring this change in Manipur. The response from youngsters is also positive. We are confident to win from Khangabok Constituency against the state CM on March 8. We don’t believe in muscle and money power,” she told CNN-News18.
The 98 candidates contesting in the second phase include four women. The preparation has been made for the phase 2 polling and a total of 3,81,381 male voters, 3, 93,091 female voters will cast their vote deciding the fate of Manipur candidates from various political parties in 1151 polling stations. The voters also include 3738 male service voters and 1159 female service voters. (ALSO READ: Of 168 candidates, 8 have criminal cases against them; BJP tops the list, Congress stands at second)
The Indian National Congress party is contesting 22 candidates in the phase 2. 22 BJP candidates, 2 CPI candidates, 6 Trinamool Congress candidates, 1 NCP candidate, 12 recognised State political parties’ candidates, 24 registered unrecognised parties’ candidates, and 24 independent candidates will contest the second phase of the election.
As per a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), out of the 98 candidates analysed, 1 (1%) candidate has declared criminal cases against himself. Out of the 98 candidates analysed, 29 (30%) are crorepatis, reports ADR.
Polling for the first phase of the Manipur Assembly Elections 2017 came to an end with an unprecedented 84 per cent voter turnout on Saturday. The first phase of the assembly elections consisted of 38 assembly constituencies spread over five districts. The voter turnout in Imphal East was 87 per cent. The total tally of all constituencies in the first phase was stated to be approximately 84 per cent. A total of 168 candidates representing various political parties contested in the first phase of Manipur polls.
The final phase of polling will be held on March 8 and the result would come out on March 11.