BJP's Win In North-East Bypolls May Impact Congress Prospects In Manipur

Six Congress MLAs in Manipur had quit the party in August when the Congress brought a no-confidence motion complaining about the functioning of former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

New Delhi: Congress prospects may get impacted in the 2022 Manipur Assembly poll as the BJP and its allies swept the North-East bypolls, results of which were announced on Tuesday.

Though Congress emerged as the single largest party last time, the BJP with the support of regional allies formed the government. The grand old party has been witnessing defection of lawmakers from it in the state since then.

State Congress in-charge Bhakt Charan Das did not respond to calls asking for a response to the party's performance in the NE bypolls.

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Attacking the BJP government, Jairam Ramesh, senior observer of the party for Manipur, tweeted: "The Bengaluru-based independent think tank, Public Affairs Centre has ranked states in terms of governance. Among large states, Uttar Pradesh is LAST and in small states, Manipur is LAST. This is the result of having BJP at the Centre and State: 0+00."

Six Congress MLAs in Manipur had quit the party in August when the Congress brought a no-confidence motion complaining about the functioning of former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh. However, eight MLAs abstained from voting during the trust vote. 

The ruling coalition had 29 MLAs, including the Speaker, while the Congress numbers were reduced due to defection. Besides Assam, the BJP heads the governments in Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. 

After the declaration of the bypoll results on Tuesday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma credited the election success to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Due to the Prime Minister's all-out mission for the multifaceted development of northeastern states, people are giving their wholehearted support to the NDA allies. With our success in all the states, BJP and NDA's responsibility further increased" observed Sarma, who is also the convener of the BJP-led anti-Congress alliance of regional parties -- North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).

The BJP and its allies swept all the nine Assembly seats in the northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram, which went to the polls on October 30. 
The Congress, which had governed these states for many decades, scored a zero.