Assembly bypolls 2020: BJP announces 16 candidates including four from Manipur

IMPHAL

The Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, announced the names of 16 candidates for the upcoming by-elections to the Assembly constituencies in Chattisgarh, Manipur, Jharkhand, Odissa, and Gujarat.

Of the 16 candidates, four are from Manipur. They include -- Oinam Lukhoi Singh for Wangoi, Paonam Brojen for Wangjing Tentha, Ngamthang Haokip for Saitu (ST), and Ginsuanhau Zou for Singhat (ST) Assembly constituency.

However, BJP is yet to announce a candidate for the Lilong assembly constituency. Lilong is majorly inhabited by the Meitei Pangal (Manipuri Muslims) of Manipur.

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Failure to name a candidate for Lilong Assembly constituency resulted in an uproar among the BJP workers and supporters. The supporters had burnt the party's flag and blocked the Imphal-Moreh road for sometime on Sunday afternoon.

Notably, the by-elections in five assembly constituencies of Manipur is set to be held on November 7.

The name of the four BJP candidates in Manipur were ex-MLAs, who had won the 2017 Assembly election on Congress tickets. All the four ministers had resigned from the Assembly after BJP won the trust vote in August this year.

It may be mentioned that the sixteen names were finalised in a meeting held on Saturday which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President J. P Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, among others.