The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday elected N Biren Singh to the post of legislature party leader in Manipur, which means he will be the new chief minister of the state. ANI reported that he will meet Governor Najma Heptulla soon to stake claim to form government. “Thank Amit Shah ji, [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi ji and senior leaders,” he said. “Left Congress due to misgovernance, sure that BJP will give good governance to Manipur.”
Besides its own candidates, the saffron party has the support of the four candidates from the National People’s Party and the Naga People’s Front who win in the 2017 Assembly elections in the state.
The Congress had also submitted a letter of support on behalf of the NPP to the governor. However, they were told by Heptulla that such representation was not allowed as per rules. She had asked the party to get the NPP president and candidates to make a case for them. Moreoever, the NPP had come out to reject the letter submitted by the Congress. They had said that the tetter was fake while reiterating their support to the BJP. “Its [Congress’ letter] is not even on official letter head,” the party pointed out. Both the NPP and NPF are part of the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Singh said he would resign from his post soon. “I will tender my resignation in a short period of time, either today or tomorrow,” Singh told ANI. The governor on Sunday night had asked Singh to resign from his post immediately so that the process of formation of a new government could be started.
However, the Congress on Monday claimed the governor had called Singh to form government as the party had proved its majority, reported The Hindu. Singh was also elected the leader of Congress Legislature Party on Sunday night, after which he had approached the governor with a list of 28 Congress MLAs and claimed support of four NPP legislators, PTI reported. However, Heptulla had said that she was convinced that BJP had the majority seats. She added that the BJP had even proven its strength by bringing its supporters to speak on TV. Heptulla further said that the NPP had submitted a letter to her wherein the four MLAs had extended support to the saffron party.
On Sunday, Sangma had declared his outfit’s support to the BJP to form government in trhe state. BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav had said that the party had the support of the NPP, Naga People’s Front and the Lok Janshakti Party.
“The mandate is clearly for a non-Congress government, it is natural that political leaders have decided to come together,” Madhav had said. “NPP is in alliance with the BJP at the Centre, [so] it was natural for us to work with them in Manipur too,” party president Conrad Sangma had said on Sunday. Both the NPP and NPF are part of the National Democratic Alliance.
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