India’s Manipur state rejects Modi’s BJP after a year of ethnic clashes

GUWAHATI:

India’s main opposition Congress party won both seats in Manipur in the general election as the northeastern state dumped Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party and its ally after a year of ethnic clashes.

Since May last year, the remote state bordering Myanmar has been rocked by clashes between the majority Meitei and Kuki-Zo tribesmen that have killed at least 220 people and displaced 60,000 to relief camps.

The state of 3.2 million people continues to be divided into two enclaves – a valley controlled by the Meiteis and the Kuki-dominated hills, separated by a section of “no-man’s land” monitored by federal paramilitary forces.

Ahead of the elections, victims from both sides of the sectarian divide expressed their displeasure with Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party for not being able to bring peace to the state.

“This is the voice of those people who love their country and those who resented the things we went through in the last year… the suffering, the tragedy,” said Congress’s A Bimol Akoijam, who beat his opponent in BJP. the Meiteis-dominated interior Manipur seat with nearly 110,000 votes.

Also Read: India to rerun elections in 11 places in Manipur after violence

The headquarters of Outer Manipur, in the hills, has mainly the Kuki-Zo and Naga tribal communities. Alfred Kanngam S Arthur won the seat for the Congress, defeating the candidate nominated by its ally BJP by more than 85,000 votes.

Modi is set to retain power at the head of a ruling coalition, but his Hindu nationalist party lost its outright majority for the first time in a decade as voters defied predictions of another landslide.

In 2019, Modi’s BJP, which also rules the state, and its ally won both the parliamentary seats in Manipur.

“In normal times, we would have won. Emotions and sentiments are still high, and that has boiled over and translated into negative votes against the BJP,” said Elangbam Johnson Singh, the BJP’s representative in Manipur, adding that there were “a lot obstacles’ to the control of violence.

Displaced devotees of the ethnic Kuki tribe attend a church service in Churachandpur, India, April 18, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS

“This is the voice of those people who love their country and those who resented the things we went through in the last one year… the suffering, the tragedy,” said Congress’s A Bimol Akoijam, who beat his opponent in the BJP. in the Meiteis-dominated interior Manipur seat by nearly 110,000 votes.

The headquarters of Outer Manipur, in the hills, has mainly the Kuki-Zo and Naga tribal communities. Alfred Kanngam S Arthur won the seat for the Congress, defeating the candidate nominated by its ally BJP by more than 85,000 votes.

Modi is set to retain power at the head of a ruling coalition, but his Hindu nationalist party lost its outright majority for the first time in a decade as voters defied predictions of another landslide.

In 2019, Modi’s BJP, which also rules the state, and its ally won both the parliamentary seats in Manipur.

“In normal times, we would have won. Emotions and sentiments are still high, and that has boiled over and translated into negative votes against the BJP,” said Elangbam Johnson Singh, the BJP’s representative in Manipur, adding that there were “a lot obstacles’ to the control of violence.