No CM material since Feb 10 ? Is an honest search on ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 19, 2025 -

February 9, 2025-N Biren Singh ‘convinced’ to put in his paper as Chief Minister of Manipur.

February 13, 2023-President’s Rule imposed and the State Assembly kept under suspended animation.

In between there was trouble shooter Sambit Patra, who is also in charge of the North East for the saffron party, and fast forward to February 18, it should be more than clear that election of a new Chief Minister was not on the agenda of the series of meetings that Sambit Patra held with all BJP MLAs.

And as things stand right now Sambit Patra is expected to return to Imphal any day soon and the question doing the round is whether he would come back with a proposal from the Centre on who could be named the next person to occupy the hot seat or whether the impasse will continue.

A simple deduction of the reality says that the Centre is not likely to dissolve the Assembly as the BJP is placed comfortably with 32 MLAs and it may not exactly work to its advantage if fresh election is held after the current Assembly is dissolved.

This is the reality and this is where questions are bound to arise on why the Central BJP leadership has not been able to come to a unanimous choice.

Or is it a case of the dissident MLAs, who had threatened to move the no-confidence motion against the leadership of N Biren, failing to project a name as the next Chief Minister ?

All questions at the moment, but these are the questions doing the round and with good reason.

With no name being projected as the person most likely to become the next Chief Minister, another question that is doing the round is how long Manipur will continue under a state of suspended animation.

Will the present arrangement work to the advantage of Manipur ?

A lot will depend on how successful Raj Bhavan is in reading the situation and in AK Bhalla Manipur may be said to have a man who must be familiar with the present crisis, given that he was the Union Home Secretary before he was named the Governor.

A good team at Raj Bhavan that is what the situation demands and Raj Bhavan will surely need to work in tandem with the Security Advisor, the Chief Secretary and DGP.

This is about Manipur and while no one knows how long the PR stint will continue, it is nonetheless important that the best steps are put forward to put Manipur on the track of normalcy.

With no final word said yet on who is best placed to succeed N Biren as the Chief Minister of Manipur, speculations are already doing the round and one cannot dismiss the possibility of hectic politicking amongst some of the better placed MLAs to stake claim to the CM’s chair.

Such a scenario cannot be good for Manipur, for what is needed is smooth succession to the chair of power and responsibility.

Suspended animation and this is perhaps the right time for the elected Members of the Assembly to pool in their heads together and discuss how to chart out a roadmap to take Manipur to the path of normalcy.

Afterall this is the most important task at hand and elected Members are the people best placed to take the lead and think out of the box and see what proposals may be forwarded to the Governor.

This is until the Assembly is revived.

No one wants President’s Rule, this is a given, but the fact that Manipur has been reeling under the ethnic conflict for 21 months under a popularly elected Government, the least one expects from the present dispensation is some sense, a sense of direction towards which Manipur is headed.

And it is towards this that the Co-ordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) called on the Governor on February 17 and sought to know the plans that may be in the pipeline to put Manipur on the track of normalcy.

Let other CSOs which have the best interests in mind for Manipur also put up their case before the Governor, so that some meaningful action is seen at the ground level.