Manipur elections results: Congress scores a hat-trick in troubled state

Amid lacklustre performances elsewhere, the Congress managed to retain Manipur for the third consecutive time, with 35 out of the 60 Assembly seats in its kitty.

The leadership of Okram Ibobi Singh paid off, and in all probabilities, he will be chief minister for the third consecutive term. However, the surprise from the state was Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress that bagged seven out of the 47 seats it had contested.

Militant outfits, seven of them that operated under their political umbrella CorCom, got mauled. CPI and CPIM too were routed despite the important part they had played in Manipur politics till far. For the Congress, 2012 has been its best performance in this northeastern state in a decade. In 2007, the party had got 31 seats.

“It is a verdict for peace and development . People have voted for stability. People have reposed faith in Congress and the work done by chief minister Singh,” Dr K Jayakumar, AICC secretary in charge of Manipur, told ET.

Despite the blasts and orchestrated violence by militants, and the whip they issued on the voting public asking them not to support or vote for Congress candidates, it was Ibobi Singh’s performance and leadership that led Congress to this thumping victory.

After the election results, the chief minister said that the government formation process will start shortly . In Kolkata, West Bengal industry minister Partha Chatterjee of Trinamool Congress said that the party would play the role of main opposition party in Manipur.

He said that his party’s electoral success in Manipur reflected Mamata Banerjee’s growing importance in national politics, especially in the north-eastern states.