Imphal: Two major political parties in Manipur on Saturday said they would soon announce the names of their candidates for the January 28 Assembly polls in the state. Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee president Gaikhangam told media persons that the party's election committee would meet on January 2 to shortlist the party candidates for the forthcoming polls.
He said more than 166 aspirants had submitted their nomination forms for contesting the elections to the 60-member state assembly. He said the meeting would shortlist the candidates considering their background and loyalty to the party and forward it to the party high command for approval hoping that the high command would approve it either on "January 5 or 6".
Gaikhangam said some sitting MLAs of non-congress parties had applied for the Congress tickets for the forthcoming elections but it could not be immediately decided whether they could be given tickets or not because all depended on the decision of the party's central leadership.
On the other hand, main opposition party, Manipur People's Party (MPP) said that it would also hold party election committee meeting on January 2 to finalise the list of the candidates.
Senior legislature wing leader O Joy said the party was likely to put up 15 candidates for the 60-member Manipur legislative assembly. Sources in the party said MPP along with Nationalist Congress Party, Janata Dal (United) and state unit of the Rashtriya Janata Dal had formed a pre-poll alliance for the polls. Political observers said the main contest for the Forth coming polls would be between Congress and the alliance of MPP, JD (U), NCP and RJD combine.
Joy told reporters that the combine would fight the polls on the issue of Manipur's boundary, corruption, political conflict (insurgency and the government), misuse of drugs and identity of Manipuris.
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