Will N. Biren Singh be Manipur Chief Minister for the second term in a row? Or will BJP go the Assam way and nominate a fresh face for the CM post? These are the questions that have cropped since the saffron party retained power in the northeastern state.
The BJP has not made clear whether Biren Singh will don the mantle of CM for the second term even after winning a clear majority with 32 out of 60 Assembly seats on Thursday.
"The decision will be taken by the high command soon. Being members of a national party, we will be following discipline, policy and decision of the high command," A Sharda Devi, president of BJP's Manipur unit told reporters in Imphal on Friday.
She said a few senior leaders of BJP from Delhi will visit Manipur soon.
Devi said this soon after Biren Singh met Governor La Ganeshan at Raj Bhawan and tendered his resignation. The Governor asked him to serve as acting CM till the new government takes charge.
Although Biren Singh emerged as a strong leader by leading the BJP to absolute majority in Manipur for the first time, sources in the party said it was not Biren alone whose leadership helped to counter Congress and its allies. They took the names of senior minister Th. Biswajit Singh and Konthoujam Govindas Singh, a veteran leader in Congress, who switched over to the BJP in 2020.
They, however, suggested that the high command is unlikely to take a decision similar to Assam, where BJP replaced Sarbananda Sonowal with senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma after the results of Assembly elections in March-April last year. Sonowal was replaced despite having not much dissidence within the party. He was later made a cabinet minister at the Centre.
Singh, they said, has strong backing of MLAs, including in the hills where BJP got six out of 20 seats. The party won five seats in the hills in 2017. Singh has already said Naga People's Front (NPF), which increased its tally to five, from four in 2017 will be part of the new government. NPF, which has a support base in the Naga-dominated hills constituencies and National People's Party (NPP) helped BJP form its first government in Manipur in 2017. Both NPP and NPF won four seats each in 2017. NPP increased its tally this time to seven, becoming the second-largest party.
Soon after the results were declared on Thursday, Singh announced that NPP would no longer be part of the next government but BJP would maintain the "coalition dharma" with NPF despite getting an absolute majority. NPP in 2020 had threatened to quit the coalition government citing its differences and style of functioning of Biren Singh but was later convinced by the BJP high command to remain part of the alliance.
Biren Singh, 61, a former journalist and footballer, had plunged into politics in 2002 and subsequently joined Congress. He quit Congress in 2016 after leading dissident MLAs against Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and joined BJP. He was made the CM after he managed to stitch an alliance with NPP, NPF and a few Congress defectors. BJP won 21 seats in 2017 whereas Congress had emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats.
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