The eligible voters among the more than 9,000 displaced people from strife-ravaged Manipur who are now living in Mizoram appear unlikely to be able to vote in this general election.

A scheme for internally displaced persons (IDPs) to vote in relief camps, announced by Manipur’s chief electoral officer Pradeep Jha last month, covers only the 320-odd camps in Manipur.

In the past, election authorities had ensured that Bru tribe IDPs who had fled violence-torn Mizoram to Tripura in 1997 were able to vote at special polling stations set up at the relief camps in their host state. Kashmir’s IDPs in Delhi have continued to vote at a special polling station since 2002.

An internally displaced person is someone who has been forced to leave their home but remains within their country’s borders.

Most of those displaced in Manipur — raging with ethnic strife between the mostly Hindu Meiteis of the valley and the mostly Christian Kuki-Zo tribes of the hills — have remained within Manipur.

Those who fled to Mizoram are expected mostly to be Kuki-Zo people, who have ethno-linguistic ties with Mizos.

The Election Commission of India, which widely publicises its polling stations set up for even single voters, has been silent on Manipur’s displaced.

Manipur governor Anusuya Uikey said in her address to the Assembly last month that 219 people were killed and more than 60,000 displaced in the violence. She added that 59,000 IDPs were currently sheltered in the 320-odd camps run by the state.

The IDP voting scheme covers 10 districts, in both the valley and the hills, where these camps are located. Even IDPs who don’t reside in the camps can enrol to vote at the special polling stations.

In a reply to the Mizoram Assembly last week, the state’s home minister, K. Sapdanga,
said 9,248 IDPs from Manipur were currently in the state.

During the peak of the influx, 35 camps were set up in three Mizoram districts. The largest camp — Falkland in Aizawl — is more than a 12-hour drive from Churachandpur in Manipur.

Chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar is yet to respond to queries emailed and WhatsApped by this newspaper. Neither he nor his deputies have visited Manipur to review preparations for the general election.

A source from the Manipur CEO’s office told The Telegraph: “Those in Mizoram can come and register in Manipur. The forms are online as well. But it is unlikely that they will come all the way.

The source added: “There are also people who left the state last year and have moved to Delhi and Bangalore. Organising polling outside Manipur would be a logistical nightmare.”

A Kuki academic, now an IDP in Mizoram, told this newspaper: “I am not going back to vote. I have no intention of trying to save the world.”

Political and community leaders this newspaper spoke to said there was little awareness about the voting scheme for internally displaced people. Few wanted to be quoted given the ethnic tensions in the state.

Kshetrimayum Santa, state CPM secretary in Manipur, said: “During the interaction of the CEO with parties before he announced the scheme, the Congress and I demanded voting rights for all people from Manipur outside the state as several had fled. He said he would discuss it with higher officials but he has not got back to us.

“Several civil society groups and our party have demanded a deferment of the polls by a year as gun battles are taking place every day.”

Santa cited deferred or cancelled Lok Sabha polls in Punjab, Assam, and Jammu and Kashmir because of unrest in these states between 1984 and 1991.

Postal voting by Brus was consistently opposed in Mizoram and caused violent protests during the 2018 elections. It prompted the poll panel to shift the voting from the camps to Kanhmun village on Mizoram’s boundary with Tripura, where the 12,000-odd Bru IDP voters were ferried in buses.

More than 30,000 Bru IDPs were permanently settled in Tripura in 2020.

Kuki People’s Alliance general secretary W. L. Hangshing told this newspaper: “The CEC should take up the matter with the Mizoram government.”

The Inner Manipur constituency votes on April 19, and Outer Manipur on April 19 and 26.