Ahead of a two-phase Lok Sabha election in Manipur on April 19 and 26, the states calm exterior belies the unease brewing within. Less than two weeks before the Imphal Valley votes, the campaigning is eerily lacklustre as a Meitei radical group, Arambai Tenggol, has issued an appeal to the political parties to avoid public meetings, feasts and use of loudspeakers while campaigning. In Imphal, the only voice that emanates from a loudspeaker these days is when a man from a garbage-collection van appeals to residents to deposit waste products in the vehicle.
The Preservation Committee of Deported Manipur War Heroes in Andaman and Nicobar Island has been demanding land in the Andaman and Nicobar island to build a heritage site of Manipur at Kalapani as it is a historic location for the many deported war heroes of Manipur, committee secretary N Nabakanta said.
Promising that the new government will never break the trust of the public, the chief minister said, “We will give our maximum effort to fulfil the people’s mandate. We will never retreat.”