Manipur

After holding a meeting with Army chief General Manoj Pande, the Chief Minister said that the security forces launched massive combing operations in many districts against the armed militants, who according to him, are attacking the civilians and their houses in different districts.

Director General of Manipur Police, P. Doungel while talking to the media said that after reviewing the overall situation, Article 355 has been imposed in the entire state allowing the Centre to take all necessary steps to bring the situation under control and protect the lives and properties of the people.

A defence spokesman said that Army and Assam Rifles personnel conducted flag marches and aerial reconnaissance in areas of Khuga, Tampa, and Khomaujanbba areas of Churachandpur district, Mantripukhri, Lamphel, and Koeirangi area of Imphal West District, and Sugnu in Kakching districts.

Thousands of tribals on Wednesday turned up for the 'Tribal Solidarity March' called by the All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM) in all the 10 hill districts of Manipur to oppose the demand for inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe category.

A day after he was named as the leader of the newly-elected BJP legislators in the state, Singh was administered the oath of office by Governor La Ganesan during a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan here. Besides the Chief Minister, five newly-elected MLAs of the BJP and its ally Naga People's Front (NPF) were also sworn-in.

Nongthombam Biren Singh will be the Manipur Chief Minister for second consecutive term, BJP's central observer and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced here on Sunday. Sitharaman, accompanied by co-observer Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, held an around two hour long meeting with the BJP's newly elected MLAs in Imphal, before announcing Biren Singh has been unanimously re-elected the BJP legislature party leader.

As the counting of the votes began on Thursday morning, the Bharatiya Janata Party was seen leading in the early trends in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur while the Aam Aadmi Party made an early headway in Punjab. As per the early trends in Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party was leading on 155 seats while Samajwadi Party was ahead on 97. In Goa, the exit polls had tipped a keen contest between the ruling BJP and the Congress and Goa Forward alliance.

The BJP is likely to capture 23 to 27 seats in the 60-member Manipur Assembly while Congress may win 12 to 16 seats, according to the ABP-C-Voter Exit Poll. The ruling BJP's two estranged allies -- National People's Party (NPP) and Naga People's Front (NPF), who fought the elections separately, are likely to bag 10 to 14 and 3 to 7, respectively. The sample size was 5,269, and the projection comes with a 95 per cent Confidence interval.

Amid stray incidents of violence, Manipur on Monday recorded 78.03 per cent voter turnout in the first phase of Assembly elections in which 38 out of the 60 Assembly seats are being contested, election officials said. Of the five districts where the first phase of elections were held, highest turnout of 82.19 per cent was recorded in Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts, followed by 76.64 per cent in Imphal East, 74.45 per cent in Churachandpur and 73.44 per cent in Bishnupur district.

Expressing its resentment, the AMCO requested the Election Commission to conduct the polling of the first phase on any day of the week other than Sundays."We earnestly appeal to the Election Commission to reschedule the first phase polling date to show solidarity and respect to the religious sentiment of the Christians," it said in a statement.