For the last three months, there has been an unending mess within the ruling Congress Legislator Party on the issue of leadership of Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh. The Congress MLAs are divided into pro-Ibobi and anti-Ibobi groups.

As some of the cabinet ministers in the present SPF government joined hands with the rebel camp to oust Shri O. Ibobi, the revolt of the dissident Congress MLAs cannot be seen as a revolt of disgruntled MLAs who had missed Ministerial berths.

It was during such days last year, on the eve of Assembly Election 2007, every Congressman sang the tune of achievement of the SPF Government for last the full five year term.

All the ruling Congress MLAs and Congress ticket seekers lined up at the gate of Shri O. Ibobi, loved him, praised him and even posed themselves as the most trusted Congressman. In that election Congress got half the strength of the 60 assembly seats, a record itself in the history of Congress party in Manipur. It got larger and got absolute majority on its own after the Khangabok and Khundrakpam Assembly by-elections.

Looking from these achievements and records, Shri O. Ibobi Singh might have attained a prominent political figure, a staunch and an undisputed leader like Lalu Prasad of Bihar or Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh. But Ibobi failed to make that mark in the Congress Party, more particularly in the ruling 30 Congress MLAs (excluding himself)

On the very moment of the last expansion of the Cabinet, it was apparent that some Congress MLAs who had missed the bus for the berth of ministership would closely monitor the day to day functioning of the SPF Government and would make life not easy and smooth for the SPF of 2007.

Hardly a year is over for the second term of O. Ibobi Singh and there are voices of dissent within the Congress MLAs and a group of Congress MLAs (a group of twelve) openly put the question marks about the deteriorating Law and order situation in the state, the total flop of administration, tardy development plans, lack of transparency in governance under the leadership of O. Ibobi Singh and the growing dissatisfaction among the Congress workers in the MPCC(I) about the style of functioning of the Chief Minister in the matter of party organizations. So on the surface level the charge and revolt of the dissident MLAs is for change of leadership and not power.

But O. Ibobi Singh cannot be written off as easily as a bore. Shri O. Ibobi in a real sense is a creator of history for Congress in Manipur. In a state like Manipur where every politician or political party - whether national or state - are always ready to dance to the tune of Delhi, Ibobi made Congress revive in Manipur under his presidentship winning 21 seats when there was a BJP Government at the Centre. Though Anti-Defection Law had helped him, he had the record of being a Chief Minister for a full term of five years.

In the 2007 Assembly election, Shri O. Ibobi won from two constituencies. It is a record. And it is also first time in Manipur that wife of a Chief Minister becomes an MLA in the Assembly. These are all for records in the political history of Manipur. From all these happenings in the past six years Ibobi’s name is in the good book of the Congress high Command.

So for the past few months the Congress High Command has been watching the situation keenly and has been assessing the development within the CLP in Manipur and at the same time does not fail to see the law and order situation and development work undertaken by the SPF Government during the past one year.

On the 11th December last year, the AICC high Command specially deputed Shri Prithviraj Chauhan, the general Secretary in charge of the North East to make a direct assessment of the situation. Prithviraj Chauhan had meetings with the MPCC leaders and other frontal organizations and sought their opinions on the question of changing the CLP leadership.

It is a very important factor because of the coming Lok Sabha election - 2009 and one Congress MP from Manipur will be of much value at a time when Congress desperately needs to gain majority number at least.

One of the most interesting phase of the meeting of the Congress Observer was when Mr. Chauhan met the ruling Congress MLAs one by one, each taking about 15 to 20 minutes. For those MLAs who were well-versed in English or Hindi the meeting took place more than 20 minutes. It was just like personality test of the competitive examination.

The question of Mr. Chauhan focused mainly on why the dissidents want to change the leader and if so whom they would like to project as a new leader. It is learnt that the dissident have projected Shri Th. Debendra as the new CLP leader.

The High Command of the AICC is yet to take a decision so far. The dissident Congress MLAs are still on their mission to oust O. Ibobi from the chair of CM. The dissidents have been putting new dates for their goal. First, it was fixed before 15th December, second, it was expected before Christmas, third at the dawn of the new year. Now the last final result is the of the 20th January.

But as the situation stands today it is seemed that the high Command is looking for a stone which can kill two birds at one throw. A reshuffle of the existing cabinet by dropping some two or three Ministers and taking in two or three from the dissident Camps as a Compromise formula with Ibobi as CM cannot be ruled out.