The Election Commission of India announced the silent period for the second phase of Manipur Assembly Election 2022 from 4 pm Thursday. As a part of it, the ECI has imposed a ban on all types of political campaigns and restriction is also imposed on the presence of political functionaries from outside the constituency.
The second phase election scheduled on March 5 will decide the fate of 92 candidates of 22 constituencies under six electoral districts. Of the 92 candidates, Y Romita of CPI (Kakching AC) and SS Olish of BJP (Chandel AC) are the only female candidates.
As many as 8,47,400 electors which includes 4,18,401 males, 4,28,968 females and 31 transgender are eligible for voting in the second phase. A total of 3,24,561 voters were recorded in Thoubal district; 29,426 in Jiribam; 95,293 in Chandel; 1,30,545 in Ukhrul; 1,60,061 in Senapati and 1,07,515 in Tamenglong.
Of the 92 candidates, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dispatched 22 candidates, another 18 from the Indian National Congress (INC), 10 each from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Naga People's Front (NPF), 11 from the National People's Party (NPP), two each from the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), three from the Republican Party of India-Athawale (RPI-A), one each from the Rashtriya Janhit Sangharsh Party (RJSP) and CPI and 12 will be fighting as independent candidates.
The Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (LJP-R), Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA) and Kuki National Assembly (KNA) did not dispatch any of their candidates in the second phase like the NPF and RJSP did in the first phase.
There will be a total of 1,247 polling stations, including six auxiliary polling stations across the six electoral districts in the second phase. Of the six auxiliary polling stations, four are in Thoubal and another two in Churachandpur.
Thoubal which has the highest number of constituencies (10 ACs) will have 395 polling stations, Jribam which has only one ACs will have 40 polling stations, Chandel which have two ACs will have 154 polling stations, Ukhrul, Senapati and Tamenglong which have three ACs each will have 219, 228 and 211 polling stations respectively.
The silent period which started prior to 48 hours of closing the polls for second phase banned political campaigning, to give voters a peaceful time to consider and make a final decision on their votes, CEO Manipur Rajesh Agrawal said.
During the silent period, all election-related matters are restricted from telecasting or broadcasting in radio, TV or similar apparatus, while pre-certification by state or district Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) is mandatory for publication of political advertisements in newspapers during the period.
As per the ECI norms, any person who contravenes the provisions of silent period will be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
The result of the poll for both the first phase and second phase will be declared on March 10 as scheduled by the ECI.
