Manipur Elections 2017: Many senior state Congress leaders have defected to the BJP.
The Manipur blockade by Naga groups, which will enter its 100th day tomorrow, is turning out to be the biggest issue in the assembly elections which will be held in less than a week's time. As people try to cope with the shortage of essential items, the Centre today called in two Naga leaders, who are in a jail in Manipur for allegedly masterminding the blockade, for talks.
The blockade had started on November 1 last year after Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh carved out seven new districts in the state. It has made life miserable for voters, with cooking gas shooting up to Rs 2000 a cylinder in the black market.
On Friday, the Centre took the court's permission and flew Gaidon Kamei and Stephan Shankril to Delhi. The two are the top leaders of the United Naga Council, or UNC, which insists that it must be part of any talks to lift the blockade.
The talks, though, remained inconclusive and another round of talks will be held on February 7.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said, "The tripartite have been held and we have told our officials that the mandate is clear. Any which way we need to find a solution to this crisis".
The blockade is the BJP's main poll plank and it wants the matter solved before the state goes to polls. The party, which won the assembly elections in Assam last year, thinks it has a chance of winning Manipur. Over the last six months, a dozen leaders of the Congress, which rules the state, have defected to the BJP.
"This is a blockade of Ibobi Singh, by Ibobi Singh and for Ibobi Singh. He has allowed this to happen for political benefits but we will not allow him to succeed," said Union minister Prakash Javedaker, who is in charge of the party's campaign in Manipur.
The Congress is targeting the non-Naga voters who decide 40 of 60 assembly seats by hinting at a nexus between the former Naga militant group NSCN (IM) and the UNC.
"The BJP might disagree, but it is a fact that after the creation of seven new districts, there was firing on police personal. Now if UNC is not linked to NSCN (IM), then UNC must be an armed group. Then the Centre should ban it," said N Bijoy Singh, the Congress spokesperson in Manipur