With Raju Bista's victory, Manipur's Nepali community gets its first MP

IMPHAL: As BJP retained the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal, the Nepali community of Manipur had a reason to celebrate. BJP candidate Raju Bista (33), who won the seat by defeating his nearest rival, Amar Singh Rai of Trinamool, by over four lakh votes, hails from the Nepali community of Manipur.
Bista will become the first leader from the 60,000-strong Nepali community of Manipur to go to Parliament.Kishore Thappa, who represented Manipur's Kangpokpi assembly constituency in the 1980s, was the only MLA from the community. Besides Char Hajare where Bista hails from, the community is concentrated mostly in Kanglatongbi, Kalapahar, Koubru Leikai and Kalikhola in Kangpokpi district as well as in a few hill districts.
Born in Char Hajare area of Kangpokpi district, Bista completed his graduation in Manipur and then went to work for a private company in Delhi. There he rose though the ranks and became the managing director of the company, before joining the BJP.
However, Bista shares a long-term bonding with the saffron party. Locals said that he had, at the early age of 8, joined an RSS unit in Manipur and toured the country as a worker of the organization. Thanks to his hard work, he soon started attracting attention of the top brass of RSS.
"We are so happy with my son's great success. After the results came in, I managed to briefly talk to him over the phone. All our family members and locals had a small celebration at our residence yesterday," his father Vishnu Bista told TOI. "Due to his hectic work schedule in Delhi, Raju visits home once or twice a year. But whenever he comes, he discusses ways in which small-scale industries can be set up to bring more development here. Now, his childhood friends, well-wishers and local residents are continuously visiting us to congratulate us on his win," he added.
President of the All Manipur Gorkha Students' Association, Lok Adhikari, said that Bista's victory is a proud moment for the Nepali community of Manipur. "Though he is settled outside the state, he has become the first Nepali MP from Manipur. We are planning to give him a grand welcome when he comes to Manipur," Adhikari said, adding that Bista will, if he is given a ministerial berth, also work for the development of Manipur.