Key Points

Several MLAs, including former state Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, are already camping in the national capital to persuade the BJP’s central leaders to re-install a popular government in the state.

Before leaving for New Delhi, BJP legislator Thounaojam Shyamkumar said that if they failed to meet the central leaders or the Central leaders ignored their demand to form the government in Manipur, then they would take a “tough decision” in this regard.

“People of Manipur want a popular government. Now the situation in the state is quite normal. If a popular government is installed in the state, then it would be better to deal with the situation and undertake developmental and welfare works for the all-around benefit of the people of the state,” Shyamkumar told the media at the Imphal international airport.

Before leaving for the national capital on Saturday, former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, while speaking to the media at the Imphal International Airport, had said a BJP MLA delegation will meet central leaders. “Would urge the central leaders to facilitate the formation of a new popular government, resolve the crisis faced by internally displaced persons (IDPs) and reopen key highways at the earliest,” he had said.

Former Health and Family Welfare Minister Sapam Ranjan Singh, former Social Welfare Minister Heikham Dingo Singh, and BJP legislator Tongbram Robindro Singh had accompanied Biren Singh to Delhi.

On Saturday, a group of MLAs, including former minister Leishangthem Susindro Meitei, Thangjam Arunkumar and Lourembam Rameshwor Meetei, all BJP MLAs, had separately left Imphal for Delhi.

Speaker Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, former minister Govindas Konthoujam and MLAs Kongkham Robindro, Sapam Kunjakeshwor, Thounaojam Shyamkumar and Karam Shyam are also expected to leave Imphal soon.

The state had a BJP-led coalition government headed by former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh before the imposition of President’s Rule on February 13 this year.

Singh quit the Chief Ministerial post on February 9, four days before the President’s Rule was imposed in the state due to prolonged ethnic violence, which broke out on May 3, 2023.

The 60-member Manipur Assembly, which, after the promulgation of President’s Rule, has been put under suspended animation, has a tenure till 2027.

Meanwhile, Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla is already in New Delhi. Bhalla, a former Home Secretary, met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday and called on Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan on Friday at the Vice-President’s Enclave in New Delhi.

Senior government officials, including Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel and Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Home) N. Ashok Kumar, have also departed for Delhi.

However, the purpose of their visit has not yet been known. After the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha passed the statutory resolutions, the President’s Rule was extended for a further period of six months with effect from August 13, 2025.

Before the extension of President’s Rule in Manipur, the former Chief Minister, several MLAs and party leaders tried to convince the Central leaders in August to form a popular government in the state, but in vain.

- IANS