Haokholet and Jayenta also jump onto Samata bandwagon

IMPHAL, January 5: The fortune of the Samata Party, Manipur unit seems to be on an upswing. Two more MLAs, namely Haokholet Kipgen and L Jayenta of the newly formed, Progressive Federal Party of Manipur, a breakaway group of the FPM, have joined its ranks. The party's central president Jaya Jaitley, in a signed press release announced this in New Delhi today saying this has brought up the strength of the party in the Manipur Assembly to 13. This new development is close on the heels of the merger into the party yesterday, of 10 breakaway Congressmen who were under the banner of the Manipur Regional Congress Party until they decided to surrender their new identity to that of the Samata Party. The ten MLAs are Radhabinod Koijam, Nimaichand Luwang, M Thohrii, M Manihar, N Nimai, M Okendra, L Kerani, L Jonathan, KH Amutombi and T Manga Vaiphei. Jaya Jaitley also welcomed the new members of the Samata Party and expressed hope that with its newfound strength, it would be able to serve the people of Manipur better. It may be recalled that the Samata Party, returned only one candidate in the February 2000 elections, Wangkhem Basantakumar, the president of the state unit of the party. Meanwhile, the Speaker, S Dhananjoy Singh, said that he has learnt of the reported merger of the 10 MLAs of the newly formed MRCP into the Samata Party from the newspapers, but has not received any official intimation of the matter as yet.