Andro (Imphal East), Jan. 23: Lodged in Tihar Jail on charges of having links with militants, the Manipur People’s Party (MPP) candidate for the Andro Assembly seat has emerged as the frontrunner in the race.
Thounaojam Shyamkumar, who was denied a ticket by the Congress, is pitted against sitting legislator S. Chandro Singh.
Delhi police arrested Shyamkumar along with two top-ranked cadre of the United National Liberation Front at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on October 2 last year. He was trying to board a Kathmandu-bound flight. The police charged the 41-year-old politician with being a sympathiser of the banned militant group.
Shyamkumar’s eldest brother, Th. Nabachandra, is in the capital with a lawyer to get his signature on the nomination papers, which will be filed in three days’ time.
The controversial MPP nominee has already applied for bail. The hearing was held in a Delhi court on Thursday, but the verdict was kept in abeyance.
Andro has a 26,870-strong electorate, including 8,000 Muslims and 2,050 Scheduled Caste voters. These two groups are expected to be the deciding factor in the election.
Shyamkumar, a registered contractor, is popular among the villagers of Andro because of his “development” activities, which include awarding meritorious students, grooming sportspeople and improving the condition of playgrounds and roads. Many Andro villagers have complained that his detention has affected the pace of development in the constituency, which comes under Imphal East district.
“The entire constituency is behind Shyamkumar with the sitting MLA having failed to live up to the expectations of voters. We have the support of the majority of Scheduled Caste and Muslim voters,” said Nilakmal Konthoujam, formerly from the Congress camp and now general secretary of an MPP local committee. Shyamkumar is no stranger to electoral battles and will be fighting his third when Andro goes to the hustings on February 14. That will be the second phase of polling in Manipur.
In his absence, a development committee founded by him last June is managing the election campaign.
In the 2002 Assembly polls, Shyamkumar had contested on a Congress ticket and finished third in the poll stakes.
Shyamkumar’s mother Shymashakhi Devi maintains that her son is innocent.
“He is a social worker and those men (UNLF cadre) could have established contact with him because of the nature of his work. He was forced to do their work. He is not a sympathiser or a militant,” she said.
If Shyamkumar wins, it will not be the first time that Andro will chose a jailed candidate. After Manipur attained statehood, Asharaf Ali, a candidate representing the minorities, won the election from Imphal Central Jail. He had been arrested in a murder case.
