51 ADC candidates withdraw from fray

Our Correspondent IMPHAL, May 11 A total of 51 candidates including a candidate of the ruling Congress party, have withdrawn on the last date of the withdrawal their nomination papers of the ensuing Autonomous District Council (ADC) elections on Monday afternoon.Thus a total of 496 candidates will be contesting in the upcoming ADC elections across the six ADCs of Chandel-Churachandpur, Sadar Hills, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul in Manipur on June 1. This was confirmed by the state election commission Secretary Th Chitra while speaking to a group of media persons at her office at Deputy Commissioner’s office complex at Lamphelpat in Imphal this evening. Chitra said a total of 51 candidates including 48 independent candidates, 1 congress and two Janata Dal(United) candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers. The congress candidates who withdrawn the nomination paper has been identified as Veikhonci Hangsing of Wakotphai constituency under Kangpokpi area in Sadar Hills. Maximum number of candidates were withdrawn from ADC Churachandpur (19) followed by Chandel (15), Sadar Hills (6), Ukhrul (5), Senapati(3) and Tamenglong(3). With these withdrawal, 495 candidates including 121 Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), 98 congress,86 Naga People’s Front(NPF),191 Independent,11 others including 4 JD(U) and 7 Lok Janasakti party will be contesting in the upcoming ADC polls. Interestingly so far 12 candidates including 7 congress,4 NPF and 1 BJP candidate are likely to declare elected unopposed as no rival candidate filed against them in their respective constituencies. The polling will be held across 1163 polling booths by using ballot papers and ballot boxes and polling will be held from 7 am to 4.30 pm.Churachandpur district (290)has the maximum number of polling booths while Chandel (144) has the minimum booths. Each polling booth will be manned by at least 5 polling officials while the state commission has requested the concerned authority to provide adequate security personnel at each polling booth for free and fair polling, Chitra added. However the state election committee is yet to announce the number hyper sentisive polling booths if any. As a result they are yet to take a decision whether the helicopter services will be introduced furing the election day or not. A total of 7,09,283 electorates will franchise their rights during the ensuing polls.