Four leaders of the National People’s Party in Manipur on Wednesday resigned from their posts as ministers in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, PTI reported. Among them was Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar Singh, who also held the finance portfolio.
The other ministers who resigned were Tribal and Hills Area Development Minister N Kayishii, Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Letpao Haokip and Health and Family Welfare Minister L Jayanta Kumar Singh. “I am to intimate that I tender my resignation from Cabinet ministership of the BJP-led coalition government of Manipur led by your good self,” Joykumar Singh, Kayishii and Haokip wrote in separate letters addressed to BJP leader and Chief Minister N Biren Singh.
Three BJP MLAs – S Subhashchandra Singh, TT Haokip and Samuel Jendai – had resigned from the party and joined the Congress earlier on Wednesday, The Indian Express reported. Trinamool Congress MLA T Robindro Singh and Independent MLA Shahabuddin also withdrew support to the government.
With the resignation of the ministers, the National People’s Party has effectively withdrawn support to the state government, as it had only four MLAs in the 59-member Assembly.
The BJP had won 21 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections, while the Congress emerged the single largest party with 28 seats. However, the BJP formed the government along with four MLAs of the Naga People’s Front, four of the National People’s Party, one Trinamool Congress legislator, one MLA from the Lok Janshakti Party and one Independent. Later, Congress MLA Shyamkumar Singh and seven more Congress legislators joined the saffron party, taking the numbers to 40.
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