Mukul Roy predicts hung assembly election

IMPHAL: Trinamool Congress (TMC) vice-president Mukul Roy on Friday predicted a hung assembly for the state. He said both the ruling Congress and BJP would fail to get an absolute majority this assembly election. Speaking at a function organized to announce the names of 15 TMC candidates, Roy said, "Trinamool will play an important role in the formation of the next government." He added that parties like Nationalist Congress Party and National People's Party were also expected to win a few seats.Prominent TMC candidates on the list include Robindro Tongbram and former MLA Thangkhulun Haokip.Roy blamed the Okram Ibobi Singh-led Congress government for failing to develop the Imphal-Silchar highway properly. He said enough funds had been sanctioned by the Centre a few years ago but the Congress government had been unable to develop the road.The Imphal-Silchar road is Manipur's second lifeline after the Imphal-Dimapur highway. While the second highway passes through Nagaland before reaching Assam, the first runs entirely through Manipur before touching Assam.The TMC, which won seven seats in the last assembly election and became the second-largest party in Manipur, has had a sad history of defection. First, senior MLA Maibam Kunjo Singh of Hiyanglam constituency died in August 2014. In the byelection that followed, TMC lost the seat to Congress. Following this, two TMC MLAs were disqualified from the assembly on grounds of defection in May 2015. They later joined BJP and won the byelections in November 2015. The remaining four MLAs left the party just before the election and joined Congress in September last year.