After suffering an unexpected reversal in the Manipur assembly elections where she was a first time candidate, Irom Sharmila has decided to quit politics, according to a report by Esha Roy in The Indian Express.
Contesting from the Thoubal assembly constituency, Sharmila lost to chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh who has won the past three polls from here, on the trot.
Considering that Thoubal was the stronghold of the Manipur CM, the result has not come as a surprise for many. But what has shocked Sharmila is the paltry number of just 90 votes coming her way, the report says.
A heartbroken Sharmila while speaking to Indian Express was at a loss to explain the result.
“I feel betrayed. But it is not the people’s fault. They are just innocent people. I don’t know why I am crying. I don’t feel that I am defeated morally. People would’ve have voted for me but their right to vote has been occupied by money. Many people told me, oh eche (sister) we would’ve voted for you, but we have already received money. You are too late, you are too late – they told me,” she said.
Sharmila says she first thought that she will make one more attempt for the MP elections but later realised that she was just not up for it with regard to contesting another election.
She declared that she will leave politics and will never fight another election. However she maintains that the party she floated, Peoples’ Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA), was the right step, even though all the three candidates fielded by the party lost.
“I want PRJA to continue and to grow. I want it to become a peoples movement backed by the youth of Manipur. I was invited by many parties to join them, including on the day of polling, for future elections. But I turned them down,” she said, as per the report.