BJP victory in Manipur: Modi vows to fulfil aspirations of Northeast

Team Udayavani, May 28, 2017, 1:50 PM IST

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated the Manipur’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for their victory in Rajya Sabha elections in the state.

Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter to express his happiness over the victory and tweeted, “Was delighted at BJP winning its first ever Rajya Sabha seat from Manipur by a big margin. Congrats to the Manipur’s BJP and nominee of BJP K Bhabhananda Singh.”

The Prime Minister also asserted that he feels honoured that the saffron party and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) got the historical opportunity to work for the people of Northeast.

“I feel honoured that BJP and NDA are getting a historic opportunity to fulfil aspirations of Northeast at so many forums, locally and nationally,” he tweeted.

BJP with K Bhabananda, the nominee of the BJP and its allies, defeated Congress nominee E Dwijamani by 18 votes in the House of 60.

By-election to the single Rajya Sabha seat was necessitated because of the demise of the then sitting Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress Abdul Salam on February 28, 2017.

One polling agent from each of five political parties like the BJP, the Nagas People Front (NPF), the National People’s Party (NPP), the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), and the Congress were seated in the polling booth.

Ballot papers were used in the polling and before putting papers inside the ballot box, all the MLAs showed it to the polling agents that they had voted for the candidate of their party.

Bhabananda won 39 votes in his favour while Congress nominee Dwijamani received 21 votes.