Two Manipur leaders question Kuki MLA’s ST status, seek his disqualification

Imphal/Churachandpur, Sep 27 (PTI) Two leaders of the Meitei and Thadou communities of Manipur have jointly urged President Droupadi Murmu to disqualify Kuki MLA Paolienlal Haokip, alleging that his scheduled tribe status is questionable and he became a voter at the age of 46.

The BJP MLA of Saikot constituency in Churachandpur district, however, dismissed the allegations as “ridiculous”.

Haokip is one of the 10 Kuki-Zo community legislators who were demanding a separate administrative unit for the tribe, and a known critic of N Biren Singh, who resigned as the chief minister of the restive state in February. Shortly after that, the Centre imposed President’s Rule in the northeastern state.

Thadou is the largest sub-tribe of the Kuki Zo community. Thadou Inpi Manipur, the apex body of the sub-tribe, in November last year urged that the central and state governments and leaders of all communities to work together to end the violence in the state.

"Paolienlal Haokip was enrolled as a voter in India for the first time at the age of 46 years and subsequently entered politics leading to his election as a member of Manipur Legislative Assembly in 2022," claimed Michael Lamjathang Haokip of Thadou Inpi, and Mayanglambam Bobby, who is a functionary of a Meitei organisation, Peoples' Alliance for Peace and Progress, alleged in their petition.

"Given his birth year of 1974, he would have been eligible for any election since the year 1992," the two leaders said in the affidavit.

They also claimed that the names of Haokip's family members were listed for the first time in the electoral rolls of 2021-2022.

The affidavit also claimed that "while Paolienlal Haokip is recorded as 46 years old, his daughter is listed as 42, which reflects an impossible age gap of only four years” between a father and her daughter.

Lamjathang and Mayanglambam also challenged the Scheduled Tribe status of Paolienlal as a member of the "Any Kuki Tribe (AKT)," arguing that in 1974, the year of his recorded birth, "Any Kuki tribe" category was not part of Manipur's ST list.

The affidavit noted that the "Any Kuki Tribe" category was not available in Manipur from 1956 to 2023 as the category was reintroduced in 2002-2003.

The petitioners also accused Haokip of "engineering" the ethnic conflict in the state as the erstwhile N Biren Singh government and the state cabinet had planned to remove "Any Kuki Tribe" from the list of Scheduled Tribes.

Responding to charges, Haokip told PTI that the accusations were "funny and ridiculous". PTI COR NN