The Bharatiya Janata Party won three seats each in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Saturday as results of the 2017 Assembly elections were declared. This gains importance because nine tribal youths were killed in the area an during agitation against the Congress government in 2015. Their bodies are still lying in the morgue as a mark of protest against the government’s action, with their supporters refusing to bury them.
The district has six constituencies. The BJP, which did not have a single seat in Manipur in 2012, won the Thanlon, Churachandpur and Henglep seats. However, the Congress managed to hold on to the three other constituencies – Tipaimukh, Saikot and Singhat.
The saffron party had promised during its campaign that it would initiate a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the incident, reported India Today. “We shall address long pending grievances of the people and deliver justice to the nine dead youth by initiating a proper and respectable investigation,” Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said.
In 2015, members of local tribal groups were protesting against three bills passed by the Ibobi Singh government to meet the Inner Line Permit demand made by the Meiteis inthe Imphal valley. The protestors termed the Bills “anti-tribal”.
Violence was reported from the region on March 7 this year, a day before the second phase of elections in the state. Villagers in the Lamka town tried to storm into a former minister’s house, reported PTI. The police had to fire tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the mob,” Superintendent of Police Rakesh Balwal told the news agency.
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