Manipur Election 2017: Irom Sharmila's PRJA urges EC to grant it whistle symbol

Imphal: The newly-floated Peoples’ Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA) of rights activist Irom Sharmila, who ended her 16-year-long fasting agitation in August last year, has moved the Election Commission of India (ECI) for granting the PRJA image of ‘whistle’ as the party symbol.

PRJA convenor Erendro told PTI that the party has applied to the EC for being granted whistle as the party symbol and was “waiting for confirmation”.

The main reason behind choosing the image of whistle is “to awaken the people to end corruption”, said Erendro, who returned to Imphal on Wednesday after submitting the party symbol.

Meanwhile, the ‘Ten4Change’ campaign of the party has heightened up, mostly to “raise funds” as well as to interact with youth about the “need to bring a change in Manipur”. PRJA has been holding rounds of interactive sessions, mostly with the young electorate, with a new concept titled ‘Ten4Change’, where participants will voluntarily donate Rs 10 each to the party fund.

Sharmila, who ended her 16-year-long fasting agitation on 9 August last year, had maintained that her sole agenda was to have the “draconian AFSPA 1958” repealed from the militancy-hit north-eastern state.

The party recently suffered a setback after its co-convenor Najima Bibi was denounced by a section of her community for announcing her decision to contest the polls on a PRJA ticket.

The AFSPA 1958 had been imposed in the state to enable the security forces deal with militant outfits and put a lid on extortion, anti-social activities and period ambushes of security forces.