Elections 98

State:	Manipur
Constituency:	Inner Manipur
Total Votes Polled:	436131
Winner: MSCP	Thounaojam Chaoba Singh	131972
Runner Up: MPP	Okram Joy Singh	115785
Margin: 16187 (12%)

Elections 96

State:	Manipur
Constituency:	Inner Manipur
Total Votes Polled:	414736
Winner: INC	Th. Chaoba	119881
Runner Up: FPM	Nongmaithem Pahari	83293
Margin: 36588 (8.94%)

Right from 1952, the Congress has had a strong presence here, although it occasionally lost to the CPI. The Manipur People's Party had been unable to make much headway in this border state, till 1991 when Yamnam Yaima defeated the Congress's R K Jaichandra Singh -- a former chief minister -- quite thoroughly. In 1996 Choube took back the seat for the Congress but interestingly, it was the Federal Party of Manipur which came second, with the MPP pushed to the third place. The BJP won 10.48 % of the votes, down from 11.4 % five years earlier.