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Ex-MLA arrested for Manipur violence was Deputy Speaker

A former Manipur MLA arrested on May 23 for allegedly instigating a fresh round of violence in Imphal was a Deputy Speaker in the 60-member State Assembly. A combined team of security forces caught ex-MLA Telvum Thangzalang Haokip along with two armed men on May 22 from New Checkon in the Imphal West district. The area has a mix of Kuki, Meitei and other ethnic groups.

Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh told journalists in Imphal that the ex-MLA was behind the conspiracy to trigger another round of unrest in the strife-torn State where at least 71 people were killed and 35,000 displaced more than a fortnight ago. “The ex-MLA and two others were formally arrested today [Tuesday],” an Imphal West police officer said.

Haokip became the Deputy Speaker after winning the byelection to the Henglep Assembly constituency on a Congress ticket in 1998. Henglep is in Churachandpur, one of the worst affected districts by the violence that unfolded on May 3. He won the Henglep seat for the second time, this time as a BJP candidate, in 2017 by defeating his nearest Congress rival by 268 votes.

In 2017, he was appointed as the chairman of the Hill Areas Committee (HAC), the highest body in Manipur at the legislative level to oversee the planning, implementation, and monitoring of all developmental activities in the State’s hill districts. But he quit the committee before his term in 2020 following differences with Singh and joined Congress that year.

But Haokip joined the Shiv Sena ahead of the 2022 Assembly election to contest the Henglep seat. He garnered 2,605 votes to finish third behind his BJP and Congress rivals.

Meanwhile, officials in Manipur said the law-and-order situation has been under control since the flare-up in the New Checkon area on Monday. Mobile internet and broadband services continued to be suspended and the curfew in Imphal and other violence-hit areas relaxed for eight hours from 5 a.m.