Biren tipped for CM's post, BJP observers arrive today
No divided team over cm post, will follow central leadership: A Sharda
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, March 12 2022: With Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sweeping the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly Election by winning 32 seats, thereby ensuring an absolute majority in the 60-member house, several national leaders of the party will be arriving here on Sunday as well as in the next few days as observers to oversee formation of new government and choose its leader.

One of the leaders of BJP Manipur Pradesh conveyed to The People's Chronicle that preparations are underway for formation of the new government on March 16 .

Ahead of this, a team of party national leaders would be arriving in the state to decide on the leader of the new government.

The central leaders would start arriving on Sunday.

The party leader further conveyed that there is no knowledge of who the observers will be as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are currently in Gujarat.

At present, state in-charge Sambit Patra is in New Delhi and holding talks with BJP national president JP Nadda and other leaders.

The team of observers as well as the decision on the next leader of the Manipur government will be decided during a meeting to be held after the PM and the union home minister return to New Delhi.

Aside from Manipur, BJP also won the elections in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and these three states are also preparing to form the new government and elect their respective new leader.

For Uttarakhand, as incumbent CM Pushkar Dhami lost the election, to take a decision on who should be appointed as the new leader of the government is becoming difficult.

Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan have been dispatched as observers to that state and will soon be in talks with the newly elected legislators.

Regarding UP, Yogi Adityanath is to be reappointed; while for Manipur, the chances of caretaker CM N Biren Singh being reappointed to the post is also quite high.

However, apart from N Biren Singh, there are also other contenders for the CM post such minister Th Biswajit, speaker Y Khemchand and Govindas Konthoujam, who had joined BJP from Congress ahead of the polls.

According to reliable sources, the central leaders are optimistic and strongly inclined towards making N Biren as the CM again since the party got an overwhelming victory in the state under his leadership, including his governance and efforts in holding the government together when the coalition faced threats.

The sources conveyed that the central observers' team which will include union minister PiyuSh Goyal, Bhupender Yadav, Sambit Patra and BL Santhosh would be arriving the state on Sunday.

After their arrival, they would hold talks with the new legislators one-by-one to gather their opinions.

A joint meeting of the BJP legislators would then be convened, after which the new leader of legislature party would also be formally announced on March 14, followed by the swearing in of the new ministers on March 16 .

The swearing-in ceremony will be organised at the open ground of Raj Bhavan, the preparations of which are underway.

Meanwhile, BJP Manipur Pradesh president A Sharda Devi has stated that there are no two different teams in the party over who would be made the next CM of the state, as the party members would be following the decision of the central leaders in this regard.

Speaking to newspersons at BJP office here on Saturday, Sharda clarified that there are no "groups or camps" among the MLAs regarding the post of CM.

The newly elected MLAs have been coming to the party office to celebrate the party's win in the polls.

They have the right to share their thoughts and as party president, she will not favour any particular individual, a principle which she has stood by since joining BJP in 1995.The state unit will follow the advice of the party high command in accordance to the party discipline, she said, while refuting claims that she is involved in the camp for the CM post.

Further stating that BJP has been able to achieve its target of getting absolute majority although it could not get 40 seats; Sharda said that the mission was successful considering that some party nominees were able to beat even the heavyweight politicians.

The people of Manipur have responded positively to the double engine government of BJP, she remarked.

The party president then said that Congress could not get even double digit seats in the polls, indicating that both the country and state are slowing becoming 'Congress-Mukt'.

Congress' failure could be ascribed to its incompetency, she added.

Meanwhile, a team of central party observers would be arriving in the state in the next few days and efforts are on to form the new government by March 19.The observers would be meeting with the successful candidates and reports on the same will be forwarded to the central leaders, Sharda conveyed.

On the other hand, there is also an uncertainty on whether political parties will take part in the formation of the new government although BJP had gotten absolute majority.

Previously, caretaker CM N Biren had announced on the media that BJP would honour the coalition principle and as such, will work with Naga Peoples' Front (NPF).

However, BJP had also stated that it would not invite NPP in the new government.

Regarding JD(U), its party leaders in the centre had voiced their support to BJP.

Furthermore, two successful independent candidates had extended support to BJP as well.

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