Manipur: Bharatiya Janata Party battles poll deal claim by Kuki militant leader

The claim has emerged at a time BJP-run Manipur is struggling to contain clashes that have so far claimed over 100 lives

Himanta Biswa Sarma, PTI

Umanand Jaiswal, TT, Guwahati, 15.06.23: A claim by a Kuki militant leader from Manipur that the BJP had struck a deal with his outfit for help in the 2019 general election and the 2017 Assembly polls has cast a glare on the ruling party’s perceived tactics to win power at any cost.

The claim has emerged at a time BJP-run Manipur is struggling to contain clashes that have so far claimed over 100 lives. On Tuesday night, nine more people were killed in the state.

S.S. Haokip, a Kuki militant leader and the chairman of the United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF), made the claim about helping the BJP in a two-page representation to Union home minister Amit Shah on June 7, 2019.

The letter was submitted as an annexure with an affidavit in a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Imphal a week ago on June 8 in connection with a case of missing government arms. Haokip, an accused in the 2018 case and chargesheeted in 2019, has sought exemption.

It is not clear whether the Union home ministry has taken any step on the repre­sentation made four years ago.

The claim spilled out into the public domain not because of government transparency but because a digital platform, India Today NE, carried a report. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had on Tuesday retweeted the news report and posted: “This is explosive. What has long been believed is now proven in black and white. It reinforces what I have been saying all along: Manipur is burning today because of the politics of the RSS/BJP.”

Haokip has said in his representation that in 2017 “as agreed upon” by Ram Madhav and “Hemanta Bishwas Sarma”, the UKLF helped BJP candidates win.

Although there is a discrepancy in the spelling, the Opposition Congress in Assam alleged that the Sarma mentioned by Haokip was Himanta Biswa Sarma, the current Assam chief minister who was the convener of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a platform of non-BJP parties in the region, and a senior cabinet minister in the Sarbananda Sonowal government in 2017. Sarma, a former Congress leader who is credited with facilitating the upsurge of the BJP in the Northeast, became the chief minister of Assam in May 2021.

In 2017, Ram Madhav was the BJP national general secretary in charge of the Northeast. At present, Madhav is a national executive member of the RSS.

Efforts by this newspaper to contact chief minister Sarma for his comments did not yield results. India Today NE quoted Madhav as saying he does not remember meeting Haokip or the leader of any militant outfit and so there was no question of taking any help. The BJP wins elections because of public support, he added.

Haokip claimed that he had played an “important role” in the formation of the BJP-led government in Manipur in 2017. Otherwise, it would have been ”impossible” to install such a combine in power, he added.

In the 2017 Assembly elections in Manipur, the BJP won 21 seats and the Congress 28 in the 60-member Assembly. But the BJP still managed to form the government — it’s first in the state — by cobbling together a majority with the help of other parties.

Haokip claimed that in the 2019 parliamentary election, BJP candidates secured almost 80-90 per cent of votes within his group’s “area of operation”. His outfit, the UKLF, is under “suspension of operations” since 2008, meaning neither the militant group nor the government will take any hostile action against each other.

On Wednesday, the Assam Congress staged a hunger strike and demanded the arrest of chief minister Sarma under the National Security Act and a judicial probe to “unearth” the truth.

Assam PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah told The Telegraph: “What has become public is grossly unconstitutional, seditious and an anti-national act by a constitutional authority (the chief minister).... The claim made by the Kuki militant leader shows the BJP can go to any extent to win elections. If our demands are not met, we will stage state-wide protests.”

The Assam Jatiya Parishad, a regional Opposition party, has also sought a judicial probe. AJP general secretary Jagadish Bhuyansaid the disclosure in the letter amounted to a violation of the Election Commission’s model code of conduct, and it also suggested that national security had been compromised.

In the 2022 Assembly polls, the BJP retained power by winning 32 of the 60 seats on its own. Days after the 2022 polls, Ramesh had accused the BJP-led government of violating the model code of conduct in the state by releasing Rs 15.7 crore and Rs 92.7 lakh to the militant groups on February 1 and March 1, respectively, under the suspension-of-operations agreement.

Ramesh had claimed that the release of funds would influence elections in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts in the first phase and Tengnoupal and Chandel districts in the second phase.