Cong braces for do-or-die election battle in Manipur

GUWAHATI: The Congress is facing yet another do-or-die battle in the northeast as it is bracing for its biggest challenge ever to regain Manipur, which it had lost to BJP in 2017 despite finishing as the single-largest party with just three seats short of the halfway mark.
In the last five years, the Congress has lost a huge chunk of its top leaders to the BJP and this happens to be its biggest problem this election.While the BJP is aiming to retain power this time without help from any allies, the Congress at present does not have this luxury of thinking of a solo run. The Congress has already formed a pre-poll alliance with CPI, CPM, Forward Bloc, RSP and JD(S).
“We are looking at a non-BJP government and we will be in the driver’s seat,” a Congress leader said.
For the Congress, its other option outside the alliance is the National People’s Party (NPP), which is expected to play a bigger role this time if BJP fails to make it to the halfway mark.
It was the NPP that emerged as the game changer in 2017 in Manipur. Its four MLAs pushed the BJP-Naga people’s Front combine ahead of Congress and with the support from three other MLAs, the BJP formed its first government in Manipur and the third in the northeast after Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Congress, besides anticipating advantage from the BJP contesting against its NDA ally, NPP in many seats, does not want to see the JD (U) as untouchable. Like the NPP, the JD (U) is also challenging the BJP in 28 of the 38 seats, which will go to the polls in first phase on February 28. The BJP is pitted against NPP in 27 seats in the first phase.
The JD (U) made its debut in the Manipur election in 2000 with 18 candidates and won one seat. In the election two years later, the party fielded seven candidates but failed to win any seat. It drew a blank in 2007, 2012 and did contest in 2017.