Tiny hill town captures Manipur’s unusual poll scene

Polls in Manipur are rarely shaped by political parties. Instead, what influences them is allegiances to clans and tribes, civil society organisations and, as many believe, even the ‘underground’, a euphemism for the state’s several militant groups. Then there’s the perennial hill-valley divide and, of course, the abundance of defecting candidates. Tiny Saikul captures it all.

In the first phase of polls on February 28, besides Yamthong Haokip, a two-time MLA on NIA radar, in the fray are his feisty daughter, the father of the state’s police chief and the wife of the self-styled chief of the outlawed Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA).

Saikhul, predominantly a Kuki-inhabited area part of Kangpokpi district, is nestled in the foothills of the Sadar Hills. (Express)

Yamthong, the sitting MLA, quit the Congress last November to join the BJP. Having won the seat twice, he is seeking to make it the third time. Named in a high-profile arms robbery case two years ago, he was accused of stealing arms from the 2nd Manipur Rifles garrison and distributing them to different ‘terrorist groups’. Following an NIA investigation, Yamthong was arrested in August 2018, but was released on bail in 2019 on medical grounds.

Standing against him, Yamthong’s daughter Lhingkim Haokip is contesting on a Congress ticket. When her father defected to the BJP, the Congress leadership thought it was only natural to take on board the “loyal Lhingkim”, a secretary of the All India Mahila Congress.

There are rumours of a fallout in the Haokip family after the MLA, a Kuki, got married a second time to a Meitei woman. With no love lost between them, the hill tribes such as Kukis have for long seen the valley-based Meiteis as wielding more economic and political power.

Lhingkim, however, says her fight is not “against my father”. “I am contesting against the BJP candidate. In politics there’s no father, there is no daughter…my aim is to serve the people of my constituency, especially the women and youth,” she says.

While the father-versus-daughter battle in Saikul may be causing many a giggle, for Yamthong’s supporters though it is “no big deal”.

“This is how politics works in Manipur,” says Angam Haokip, a member of the local village authority who is also a BJP worker. “They have some personal family matter, but who are we to comment?”

Angam says he is happy with Yamthong’s work as he had managed to make a few roads motorable “despite being in the Opposition”. “Now he is with the BJP, so he will be able to do even more,” he adds.

Many others do not agree. “He barely comes here,” Chongloi says, adding: “I do not think he cares for tribal rights…he never takes advice from stakeholders.”

That’s why, perhaps, a 33-year-old aspiring actor, who did not want to reveal his name, says he will support the Kuki People Alliance (KPA) candidate Kimneo Haokip Hnagshing. Formed just a month ago, the KPA claims to represent tribal, particularly Kuki, interests.

“We need roads, playgrounds, auditoriums. There is no college here. The Primary Health Centre was upgraded to a Community Health Centre two years back, but it’s still in a shambles,” the aspiring actor says.

Kimneo, 34, is the wife of David Hnaghsing, the chairman of the KRA, a militant group under the Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement between the Centre and state governments. Formed in 1999, the KRA, just like other Kuki armed groups, wants to secure a unified homeland for Kukis across Manipur. Incidentally, David, too, was earlier arrested in the NIA arms robbery case, along with Yamthong.

With underground groups believed to be wielding strong influence on the polls in Manipur, locals say her husband’s militant credentials will help Kimneo secure a win. But she disagrees. “My candidature has nothing to do with that. My social work in the village speaks for itself. Moreover, I work for the safeguard of tribal rights…so naturally people support me,” says Kimneo, who studied in Bengaluru, before working as a committee officer in the Manipur Legislative Assembly.

Chongloi’s KSO, too, is backing Kimneo. “She is well-educated, articulate, and has done a lot of social work. More importantly, she cares for Kuki rights,” he says, adding it was time a political party represented “true Kuki interests”.

While the KPA’s main poll planks are what the state’s tribal communities have demanded for long – a repeal of AFSPA and a push for the ‘Manipur (Hill Areas) Autonomous District Council Bill 2021′, aimed at empowering the hill areas – Kimneo admits the fight is not easy. There are seven other candidates in this constituency, and it is not going to be easy,” she says.

The National People’s Party (NPP), which has been seeking to broaden its footprint in the Northeast, and the Janata Dal United (J-DU) too have fielded candidates in Saikul.

Then there is Manipur DGP, P Doungel’s father Chungkhokai Doungel, a popular name among the locals. MLA from Saikul thrice (1992-2012), Doungel senior was earlier with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Manipur People’s Parties, but now calls himself a “freelance politician”. He has survived multiple assassination attempts, including a bomb blast that nearly took his wife’s life in 1995.

“All that is in the past…but I still receive a lot of death threats now too,” he says. Doungel denied his son’s being the DGP will help him win the elections. “There there is nothing like that, he completely keeps away from all this,” he says.

An old hand in politics, Doungel, who will turn 82 in May, admits the election in Saikul this time is interesting. “Saikul is like a forgotten island…remote and backward. This time there are many candidates but who will win is anybody’s guess.”

(With inputs from Jimmy Leivon)