Guwahati: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single-largest party in Manipur Thursday.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) website, as of 3.45 pm, the party had won in 12 seats and was leading in 11. It is expected to close in on the 31-majority mark in the 60-member House.
Meanwhile, the Congress appeared to be facing a rout in the state, winning in two seats and leading in two, according to the latest ECI data.
So far, the Naga People’s Front (NPF) has won in two seats and is leading in five, while the National People’s Party (NPP) is leading in five seats. Part of the BJP-led alliance government in Manipur that was in power so far, the NPP and NPF fought these elections separately.
Significantly, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) — a first-time contender in Manipur and part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre — has managed to open its account in the state by winning in three seats so far.
A key question now is, who will get the CM’s chair? The BJP had maintained prior to the polls that its face would be decided after the results were out.
While incumbent chief minister N. Biren Singh remains the front-runner for a second term in office, it may become difficult to give him the post if the alliance partners do not support him.
NPP ministers had earlier resigned from the Manipur government, expressing unhappiness over Singh’s style of functioning and demanding a change in leadership. The BJP high command had to intervene to dissipate what appeared to be a crisis threatening the party-led coalition government.
Also read: NPP alleged militants campaigning for BJP in Manipur. Here’s why it didn’t push issue with EC
The contenders
There are currently four CM contenders in Manipur — Biren Singh, cabinet minister Thongam Biswajit Singh, former state Congress chief Govindas Konthoujam and Assembly speaker Yumnam Khemchand Singh, according to political experts and party sources.
Biren Singh
A former footballer, BSF personnel and journalist, Biren Singh was first elected to the Manipur Assembly in 2002 on a Democratic Revolutionary Peoples Party ticket from the Heingang constituency. A year later, he joined the Congress and was appointed minister of state for vigilance.
Biren was once a close aide of former Manipur CM (2002-2017) and Congressman Okram Ibobi Singh, and was even considered his protege. However, the two were at odds after Biren couldn’t make it to Ibobi Singh’s cabinet following the 2012 elections, which saw the Congress win the state for the third time in a row.
Eventually, in 2016, Biren joined the BJP. His elevation in the party was quick and a year later, he was appointed CM after it clinched victory in the 2017 Manipur polls.
The last five years of the Biren Singh government have been marred by several controversies. The CM has come under severe criticism over sedition cases against journalists in the state. Trouble also brewed between the BJP and its coalition partners after Yumnam Joykumar Singh, deputy CM and NPP leader, was stripped of all portfolios.
Voters ThePrint spoke to ahead of the Assembly elections, however, said that it was under the Biren Singh government that Manipur’s roads got better.
Thongam Biswajit Singh
Thongam Biswajit Singh, who handled the rural development and panchayati raj department as minister, forayed into politics in 2012 when he fought the Assembly elections on a Trinamool Congress ticket. He was elected as MLA from the Thongju constituency in Imphal East.
In 2015, he resigned from the TMC, joined the BJP and fought the by-election to the seat, and got re-elected.
In fact, it was Biswajit along with Khumukcham Joykishan (who too defected from the TMC to the BJP) who helped the BJP make its debut in the Manipur Assembly in November 2015. Joykishan later defected to the Congress.
In 2017, Biswajit was once again elected to the House and given several cabinet portfolios. In 2021, he was appointed to the BJP’s national executive committee.
Biswajit and Biren have been at loggerheads ever since the latter was elevated to the CM’s position in 2017. In fact, in the cabinet reshuffle of 2019, Biswajit along with deputy CM Joykumar Singh were stripped of the power and finance portfolios, respectively.
Govindas Konthoujam
A six-time Congress MLA from the Bishnupur constituency, Govindas Konthoujam has been a prominent Congress leader of the region. He was also the chief whip of the Congress Legislature Party following the 2017 Assembly elections.
Konthoujam also served as the president of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee. In 2021, he quit the party citing personal reasons, and later joined the BJP.
Yumnam Khemchand Singh
A businessman, Yumnam Khemchand Singh first fought in the 2012 Assembly elections from the Singjamei constituency and lost to Congress’s Irengbam Hemochandra Singh. Five years later, in the 2017 polls, Khemchand managed to wrest the seat from the MLA and was appointed Speaker in the Manipur Assembly.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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