No Kuki candidates so far for ST-reserved Outer Manipur seat

The ripple effect of the nearly year-long ethnic strife in Manipur is now being felt in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. With nominations for the first phase of polls closing on Wednesday, there is still no member of the Kuki-Zomi community in the fray from the Outer Manipur seat, which votes across the first and second phases (April 19, 26).

At least since 2009, a Kuki candidate has always fought the election from the Lok Sabha seat. The ethnic strife in Manipur has pitted the Kukis against the dominant Meitei community in the state.

On Monday evening, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum – an influential Kuki-Zomi group – issued an “advisory notice” urging people from the community not to file nominations “considering the plight they were facing”, even as encouraging people to vote.

The Kuki People’s Alliance, a party floated in 2022 with an aim to politically represent the interests of the community, which has two MLAs in the Assembly, has also decided against fielding candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

“Efforts are on to field a ‘consensus candidate’ from the community. The situation is delicate and we do not have winning numbers. The exercise will be futile if a lot of people contest. We have to be calculative as we do not have the support of any major party. We have more or less concluded that we should not field a candidate as we will not get 100% of Kuki votes. If we contest, other smaller outfits may also want to contest,” the party’s general secretary, Lalam Hangshing, told The Indian Express.

Thangminlen Kipgen, spokesperson of the Kuki Inpi Manipur – the apex body of Kuki tribes in the state – said many factors were behind the community’s decision not to contest the polls.

“It (not contesting polls) is not a form