Lok Sabha Elections 2019: BJP Set to Win Inner Manipur, NPF Marches Towards Victory in Outer Manipur

Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh from BJP is leading in Inner Manipur. Meanwhile, NPP's Lorho S Pfoze leads the Outer Manipur constituency.

A few minutes into the counting, Houlim Shokopao Mate from BJP is leading in the Outer Manipur constituency.

Preparations for the counting commenced a day before in the state.

The fate of seven candidates contesting for two Lok Sabha seats in Manipur will be decided in the next 24 hours as the counting for the 2019 General Election has begun at 8 am. This year’s polling was off with a rocky start after re-polling of 19 booths were put into action in the Outer Manipur. Following alleged discrepancies, Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India demanded re-polling of 19 booths but were denied.

The two phases of voting took place in Manipur on April 11 and April 18, 2019.  Looking at the past five Lok Sabha elections, in the Inner Manipur Constituency, the CPI finished as the runner up consecutively in the past three elections. The lowest margin was 11.85% in 2004 and the largest, 32.41% in 2014. Whereas, for Outer Manipur, the CPI won once in 1998 with a margin of 0.78% and hasn’t featured as a runner up.

Here are 10 facts about Manipur you need to know before the results:

1. Major candidates contesting for Inner Manipur are Houlim Shokhopao Mate from BJP, Oinam Nabakishore Singh from INC, Hangkhanpau Taithul from JD(U) and Moirangthem Nara Singh from CPI(M).
2. Key candidates for Outer Manipur include Shri H Shokhopao Mate (Benjamin) from BJP, K. James from INC and Angam Karung Kom from NCP.
3. The total number of voters in Manipur were 19,50,288.
4. Out of the total number of voters, 9,58,697 are male, 9,91,565 female and 26 voters of the Third Gender.
5. Manipur sends a total of two representatives to the Lok Sabha.
6. For the 2019 elections, Manipur entered the history books, for being the first state in the country to introduce all-women polling booths in an entire assembly constituency. While such booths have been set up in other places too, Manipur took the cake by having an entire assembly segment managed completely by women poll officers.
7. The state showed 78.2 per cent voter turn up which in the first phase and an aggregate of more than 80 per cent as the second phase concluded.
8. Both the Lok Sabha seats in Manipur are currently held by the Congress. Whereas, the State Government is a coalition of the BJP, NPP, Naga Peoples Front (NPF) Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and an Independent.
9. The Naga People’s Front (NPF) has alleged that the BJP has registered a first information report (FIR) under a fictitious name of Lucky Riha alleging that the NSCN(IM) has been intimidating voters to vote for the NPF.
10. Since the last two terms in 2009 and 2014, the Indian National Congress has won both the seats in the state.