On the final day of filing nominations, six candidates for Inner Manipur and three for Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituencies have filed their nomination papers to contest in the first phase of the upcoming 18th Lok Sabha Elections which is scheduled to be held on April 19, 2024.
With this, a total of seven candidates are in the fray for the 1-Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency seat and four candidates will contest for 2-Outer Manipur Parliamentary seat.
As the Kuki-Zo bodies have announced their abstention from contesting the elections due to the plight they are facing in the wake of the ongoing state-sponsored ethnic cleansing pogrom, the candidates comprise mainly from the Meitei and Naga communities who will be contesting the ensuing 18th Lok Sabha Elections. The Kuki bodies, however, urged their people to franchise their right to vote during the elections.
The candidates who filed their nominations for Inner Manipur seat today included Maheshwar Thounaojam, representing Republican Party of India Athawale (RPIA); Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh, representing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); Dr. Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, representing Indian National Congress (INC); Moirangthem Totomshana Nongshaba, representing Rashtriya Janhit Sangharsh Party (RJSP); Haorungbam Sarat Singh, Independent candidate, and Ngasepam Nilakanta Singh, representing Universal Family Party. Earlier, Rajkumar Somendro Singh @ Kaiku had already filed his nomination paper representing the Manipur People's Party (MPP) on March 25.
Meanwhile, three candidates from the Outer Manipur seat, including former Congress MLA from Ukhrul A/C, Alfred Kanngam Arthur, have officially filed their nominations at the Returning Officer’s office in Thoubal district today. The two other candidates who have filed today for the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency on an independent ticket included Dr. Alyson Abonmai from the Zeliangrong community and former United Naga Council (UNC) President Kho John from the Poumai community. Dr Alyson Abonmai, popularly known as ‘The Gospel Cowboy,’ was earlier seeking a ticket from the BJP party. However, the saffron party had already declared its support to Naga Poeple's Front (NPF) candidate, Kachui Timothy Zimik, a retired IRS, who had already filed his nomination papers on March 25.
The nomination papers filed for all the candidates will be taken up for scrutiny at 11 a.m. tomorrow i.e., the 28th of March, Thursday at the respective Offices of the Returning Officers, for the two Parliamentary Constituencies; and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is the 30th of March, 2024.
The elections for the first phase for 102 Lok Sabha seats in 17 States and four Union Territories will be held on April 19, 2024.
The first phase polls includes 39 seats of Tamil Nadu, 12 seats of Rajasthan, 8 seats of Uttar Pradesh, 6 seats of Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats each in Uttarakhand, Assam and Maharashtra, 4 seats of Bihar, three seats of West Bengal, 2 seats each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and 1 seat each in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
Notification for the second phase will be issued tomorrow for 89 Lok Sabha seats in different States and Union Territories.
