NPP demands adequate security to party candidates ahead of Manipur Assembly polls

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaFebruary 19, 2022

National People’s Party (NPP) on Saturday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure free and fair conduct of the upcoming Manipur Assembly polls, which will commence from February 28 to March 5, following attacks on its candidates.

A delegation led by NPP national president and Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma met the Manipur Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and informed about the repeated attacks on the NPP candidates, their relatives and workers.

This was after Andro candidate L Sanjoy Singh’s father Shamjai Singh was shot in the right shoulder while he was at a campaign programme at Yairipok Yambem Leikai on Friday night.

“This is being done by certain candidates of certain political parties and we have given all the details to the ECI. We have met the CEO and other officials of the ECI and we have asked them to ensure no such incidents in the future should happen as the objective is to ensure free and fair elections,” Sangma said after the meeting.

He said necessary steps to ensure such kind of violence do not take place in the near future besides providing additional forces and security to all NPP candidates particularly those who are being targeted have been discussed during the meeting.

Sangma said that the party has also demanded the immediate declaration of hyper sensitive constituencies so that more security arrangements can be made now and more importantly during the polling time to ensure there is no interference from any kind of groups and to ensure free and fair elections are held.

“We have received a positive response from the ECI. The CEO has informed us that enough forces have been asked but we have requested that full security and quick action should be taken,” the NPP chief said.

“We have also requested that the replies to the complaints that have been made in the past must be given to us immediately and at the same time there are certain officials from the government side who could be using their position to influence candidates, workers and voters, we have asked those individuals and officers to also be transferred at the earliest,” he further added.