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.
