Battle of the intending candidates over, now the game of throne begins

The battleground for the intending candidates inside political parties has been over now and the ground is now set for the game of throne the next government. The game may be classified into three tiers – first, it is among the political leaders of the respective political parties, the second is among the political parties who are expecting majority number of seats in the next state legislative assembly and the third is among the shrewd political leaders who are capable of playing the X-factors.
For the first phase poll which is scheduled on February 27, a total of 176 candidates are in the fray. If the ECI doesn’t reconsider postponing the polling date by sidelining the demand by the Christian community to fix it on some other day, polling will be held in 38 assembly constituencies of the state. Before the announcement of the candidates by respective political parties, there were hectic unseen war going on between aspiring candidates. It was seen in major political parties like the BJP, Congress and even in the RPI (Athwale). The scene for burning of flags at various constituencies by intending candidates of the political parties following the denial of party tickets is over now. Interestingly, even before the peoples’ mandate is declared the game to form government by political parties has already begun. As all political parties seem to know that no particular political party is unlikely to get the magic number to form the government, the major political parties has started looking for partners in the post-poll political theatre. Even smaller parties that have been expecting some few numbers are hoping to play cards by holding the top post, which is the Chief Ministerial post. That is not the end even among party candidates there are unseen war for the top post. Who are playing this why is a matter yet to be discussed but there are talks going on about, among the candidates of the same political party for the post. Of course, it is natural that people contesting the election spread propaganda of having more chance of winning the election to become MLA, those MLA spread propaganda to become minister and those ministers to make his people believe that he or she will be the next Chief Minister. These are strategies for election in contemporary Manipur’s political spectrum.
But then, when candidates of the same political party started actual cold war for the chief ministerial post some other rival or friendly political parties definitely are benefited. So, the talk about projecting some candidates as chief ministerial candidates for the party may be speculated as a well plan rumours by leaders of opponent political parties. For example, if the NPP legislative leader is being projected as the next chief minister then definitely there will be a crack in the NDA partnership at the center which will again be a big loss for the government in Meghalaya which is going hand in hand with the ruling BJP. Similarly, if some people started spreading news about the president of the MPCC to be the next Chief Ministerial candidate of the congress party then the expected differences may sabotage the poll strategy of the Congress party. The same is with the BJP, the news (by some media) about Works minister or the former Education Minister trying their best to become chief minister definitely will sabotage the poll strategy of the BJP. These are all known facts and the candidates and leaders of all political parties knew it. However, it keeps playing, and finally it is turning into a cold war and likely to be in the public domain.
On the other hand, the battle for the post-election will be more interesting. As the political theatre is more likely to be played by smaller parties, Political parties expecting to lead the next government may find headache to offer better privilege to whichever they invited.
Scrutiny has been over for the first-round election today and people are watching how the heavy-weight political players are performing. People are watching ‘who is the best player in the game of throne’.