Okram’s son to contest from Khangabok

Imphal/Guwahati: Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s son Okram Surjakumar will contest the upcoming assembly election from Khangabok in Thoubal district.
The 29-year-old’s mother, Landhoni Devi, is the sitting MLA of the constituency which is adjacent to Thoubal, a seat represented by Ibobi Singh. Khangabok will vote on March 8.
Surjakumar was recommended as a candidate at a Khangabok Block Congress Committee meeting on December 31 last year after no one turned up to claim a ticket for the seat till the previous day.He was formally declared a candidate at a Congress meeting in the constituency on Sunday.
Surjakumar, who completed his schooling from Scindia School, Gwalior, joined politics during the 2012 assembly election when he campaigned for his parents in Thoubal and Khangabok. He is an economics graduate from Kingston University, UK, and the founder of an NGO called Green Revolution Society in Thoubal. He is also known to have worked at a hotel in Delhi after his graduation.
The Khangabok seat has been represented by Landhoni Devi since 2007. Before that, it was represented by Ibobi for three terms — in 1984, 1990, and 2002. In fact, Ibobi became chief minister for the first time in 2002 from Khangabok. In the assembly polls of 2007, he contested from Thoubal and Khangabok and won both seats. He retained Thoubal and left Khangabok for his wife.
The 68-year-old chief minister has been criticized for indulging in dynasty politics in Manipur but his family enjoys immense popularity in Thoubal. Ibobi first entered the state assembly in 1984 when he won the Khangabok seat as an Independent. He then joined Congress and won the seat again in 1990. He lost it in 1995 and 2000. He was made Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee president in 1999 after many Congress heavyweights left the party. Former chief minister Rishang Keishing and he are credited with rebuilding the party from scratch.
Luck and loyalty both played an important part in Ibobi’s political career. When Congress returned to power in the 2002 assembly election, Keishing lost his seat but Ibobi was rewarded with the CM’s post by party president Sonia Gandhi. Since then, Ibobi has led Congress to three consecutive electoral victories in the state.