IMPHAL, Oct 26 � The Election Commission of India (ECI) officials have assured that the forthcoming Assembly election in Manipur scheduled to be held early next year, would be conducted in a single phase.
The assurance was given to BJP Manipur unit President Sh Shantikumar Sharma who led a party delegation to a meeting with ECI officials in New Delhi.
Speaking to media yesterday, Shantikumar said that the ECI authority had assured them that the poll could be conducted in a single phase as done in big States like Bihar.
Apart from demanding one phase poll to avoid manipulation of voters, BJP Manipur has been demanding deployment of Central forces in place of State forces for election security, video coverage at the polling booths. They also demanded that militant groups having ceasefire agreement with New Delhi be confined to their respective designated camps and special measures to check extraordinary role of money during the electioneering process.
A Memorandum has also been submitted to Chief Election Commissioner of India through Election Commissioner HS Brahma in this regard.
�The State has recorded six decades of democratically elected government but the reality is quite contradictory to the very essence of democracy. In almost all the 20 Assembly segments of hill districts, the majority of voters have not been getting the opportunity to cast their votes in favours of any party or any candidates for the last 60 years�, Sharma alleged in the memorandum.
�Their political status has become nothing more than being a bonded citizen of this democratic country. They are bound to obey the dictates of the undergrounds or the civil societies which work in tune with the agenda of UGs for several decades�, it added.
BJP Manipur team along with their party president Nitin Gadkari had also called on Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and urged him to lead an all political party team to Manipur to study the prevailing situation in the State arising out of the prolonged economic blockade.
