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Every one a former Congressman

All the heavyweights in the fray for the February 22 assembly elections in Manipur are former Congressmen.

Both Chief Minister Nipamacha Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Chandramani Singh won the 1995 elections on Congress tickets but later left the party and formed the Manipur State Congress Party.

Nipamacha Singh is contesting the Wangoi constituency for the fifth time in a row but this time as an MSCP candidate.

He was made minister of state for education after winning the Wangoi seat in West Imphal district in 1974. In 1980 he contested on a Congress ticket and lost. He was elected in 1985 on a Janata Party ticket and in 1990 he retained the seat as a Congress (S) nominee and became public health engineering department minister.

In 1995, he was re-elected from the constituency on a Congress ticket and became the speaker when Rishang Keishing was chief minister. Nipamacha Singh engineered a split in the Congress, ousted the Congress government and formed the MSCP and became the chief minister.

There are 18,228 voters in Wangoi, of which 8904 are men and 9324 women.

Deputy Chief Minister L Chandramani Singh has won all elections held between 1972 to 1985 from Patsoi in West Imphal district although he was never consistently stayed with any party.

He holds the distinction of being the first speaker of the Manipur assembly not to belong to any party. He then joined the Janata Party and, later, the Congress. He remained in the Congress till the MSCP was formed.

Patsoi has 23,821 votes; 11,503 are male and 12,318 women.

Former chief minister R K Ranbir Singh, who is the Manipur Peoples Party candidate from Keishamthong, was first elected to the Manipur assembly in 1974 and became finance minister. He was re-elected from the Keishamthong constituency in 1980 and was the speaker when the Congress was in power. He lost his seat in 1985 but made it to the assembly on an MPP ticket in 1990 and became chief minister. In 1995, he won the seat for the fourth time.

There are 22,391 voters in Keishamthong.

Another former chief minister, R K Dorendra Singh, who is contesting from Yaiskul, this time as a Bharatiya Janata Party nominee, has been a Congress candidate on five occasions.

R K Dorendro Singh had won the Yaiskul seat as a Congress candidate in 1974 and became the speaker. He became the chief minister in 1977 and retained the chief ministership after the 1980, 1985 and 1990 assembly elections. He lost to E Kunjeshwar Singh of the BJP in 1995.

after Kunjeshwar Singh joined the MSCP and became a minister, the BJP nominated Dorendro Singh for this seat.

Yaiskul is the only constituency where voters will witness a straight contest between the BJP and the MSCP.

There are 21,428 voters in Yaiskul, of which 9,968 are men and 11,460 are women.

Speaker K Babudhon Singh is seeking re-election from Langthabal constituency.

UNI

Assembly Election 2000

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