Smaller political parties may hold the key to government formation in Manipur if the two-phase Assembly election yields a fractured verdict.
Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are confident of touching or crossing the majority mark of 31 seats in the 60-member House. But pre-poll surveys have pointed to a hung House, as was the case five years ago.
In the 2017 election, the Congress won 28 seats and the BJP 21. But the latter stitched an alliance with the National People’s Party (NPP), the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and other smaller parties to form the government.
The NPP and the NPF chose not to go for any pre-poll alliance, apparently to keep options open. While these two parties hope to improve upon their 2017 performance, the Janata Dal (United) has emerged as a third force among the smaller parties this time.
The NPP and the NPF had won four seats each in the 2017 election with a strike rate of a little below 50%.
“We expect to not only do better but form an NPP-led government,” Sheikh Noorul Hassan, general secretary of the party’s Manipur unit, said.
“We hope to win a few seats to be in a position of strength when the next government is formed,” JD(U) president Hangkhanpao Taithul said.
The prospects of the NPP and the JD(U) are said to have been brightened because of the influential candidates who defected from the BJP after they were denied tickets.
While the NPP and the JD(U) are contesting more than 35 seats, the NPF is restricted to 10 seats in the Naga-inhabited hills.
