“There is no possibility of a hung assembly, no question,” said Biren Singh.
Guwahati:
With some poll polls predicting a hung assembly in Manipur, Chief Minister Biren Singh has predicted a multi-cornered battle with regional parties like the NPP, NPF and newly entrenched JD(U) despite the polls scheduled for February 28 and March 5. has denied. Some are fielding strong candidates.
Mr Singh said his party BJP, which faced a sharp backlash last month within its choice of candidates, has been calculative in its strategy and focused on the victory of its candidates. The Chief Minister claimed that this would give an absolute majority to the party.
“There is no possibility of a hung assembly, no question. I am saying it will happen by all counts. Out of 60 seats, we have 29 sitting MLAs and their wins are huge. And with this, we only get 11. We need to win other seats to form the government, which we will easily get. This is the arithmetic we are working on,” Mr. Singh told NDTV.
He said this after the party’s creative campaign to run a digital campaign in all 60 constituencies of the state and the launch of vans with multimedia facilities.
While BJP is contesting on all seats this time, Congress is contesting on its 54 seats and has left six seats for its alliance partners- Left parties and JD(S).
The “dark horse” of this election – Konrad Sangma’s NPP is contesting on 42 seats and the surprise package – JD(U) is contesting on 38 seats.
Leaders of both Congress and BJP who did not get party tickets have been fielded by smaller parties and may run away from votes of both BJP and Congress. NPF is contesting on 10 seats in hilly areas.
No small party is in a pre-poll alliance.
“After not getting BJP tickets, many of our leaders were disappointed as we could not give tickets to everyone. But it is a matter of luck that most of these leaders – in 12 constituencies, have resolved their differences,” Biren Singh said.
“Everyone wanted a BJP ticket, so those who didn’t get a ticket went to smaller parties because they want to contest but contesting is one thing, winning an election is another. To win an election, you need to win. And they don’t have that as only BJP candidates have the potential to win,” Mr. Singh said.
Manipur’s previous election in 2017 produced a hung assembly when the Congress won 28 seats and the BJP 21, but forged alliances with smaller parties in its favour.
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