All set for last phase of Manipur Lok Sabha elections today

Correspondent
IMPHAL, April 16

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he preparation and security arrangement for the smooth conduct of polling in Manipur’s second Lok Sabha seat – Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency on Thursday is getting ready, according to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manipur O Nabakishore Singh. The polling will start from 7 am till 4 pm.
“A total of 68 central paramilitary companies, 136 companies of state armed police and 47 unarmed teams will be using during the election,” the CEO said.
The state election authority has also identified 78 hyper sensitive, 832 sensitive and 346 normal polling stations out of the 1256 polling stations spreading across the 32 Assembly Constituencies(AC) in the four valley districts-Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Bishnupur which forms Inner Manipur PC.“Web casting facilities at 75 polling stations have also been made,” CEO added. Besides the election authority will provide 12 bottled water and two battery operated LED lamps for each polling stations.
On April 9, around 84 percent of the total 9,11,699 voters in the tribal reserved Outer Manipur PC which comprises of five hill districts-Chandel, Churachandpur, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul besides 8 ACs in Thoubal and Imphal East districts, cast their votes.
On Thursday’s polling, a total 8,53,069 voters including 4,37,755 female voters, 2290 service voters(482 females) will decide the fate of eight candidates including the sitting congress MP Dr T Meinya Singh who is seeking re-election for the third consecutive term.
According to political observers, though there are 8 candidates in the fray, the main battle will be between Congress candidate and Dr Moirangthem Nara Singh of the Communist Party of India who lost to Dr Meinya in 2009 polls and Dr RK Ranjan Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The other candidates are S Manaobi of Trinamool Congress, Dr Th Ibomcha of Aam Aadmi Party, O Jotin of Jai Mahabharat,G Tonsana of Manipur Democratic People’s Front and Independent Indira Oinam.