No official decision on next Chief Minister yet
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 16 2022: Even as the Caretaker Chief Minister N Biren Singh, former Works Minister Th Biswajit and BJP State Unit president A Sharda Devi have been holding a series of meeting with National leaders at New Delhi, the question of who would be appointed as the next Chief Minister of Manipur hasn't been made official yet.

Reportedly, all three of them will return to Imphal tomorrow in separate flights.

Though N Biren Singh, Th Biswajit and A Sharda Devi left for New Delhi in a chartered flight yesterday on the invitation of BJP leaders and had attended a meeting of the party's Parliamentary Board, the leader of BJP Legislature Party has also not been elected yet.

No official decision on next Chief Minister yet

Due to the non appointment of BJP Legislature Party leader till date, the question of who will head the next Government as Chief Minister is as yet unclear although some news channels have reported that N Biren Singh will retain the post.

Today, N Biren Singh interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the latter congratulated the Caretaker Chief Minister for the massive win of BJP in the recent State Assembly election.

Later, N Biren Singh called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National president JP Nadda.

Meanwhile, it is reported that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju who have been appointed as Observer and Co-Observer for the election of the BJP legislative party leader in Manipur are likely to land in Imphal on March 18 or 19 to oversee the appointment/election of the next Chief Minister.

Even as news that N Biren Singh has got the nod to continue as the Chief Minister went viral, with some TV news channels including Aaj Tak, Times Now and NDTV carrying the news, a source from the State BJP said that there is nothing official about the report.

The source pointed out to The Sangai Express that all the reports have relied on 'BJP sources' and reminded that the BJP Parliamentary Board had on March 14 appointed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju as Observer and Co-Observer for electing the next Chief Minister of Manipur.

"Our party high command has entrusted the two senior leaders of the party to discuss with the elected MLAs of BJP in Manipur in a democratic manner," added the source.

Their visit to the State is still awaited, said the source and added that the news item from New Delhi and carried in some news channels is against media ethics.

The veracity of the said news item needed to be confirmed before it was beamed live and which went viral, added the source.