National media reports spice up race for CM's post
N Biren meets top central leaders, uncertainty persists, BJP source clarifies
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, March 16 2022: Caretaker chief minister N Biren, MLA Th Biswajit and BJP Manipur Pradesh president A Sharda, who are in the national capital discussing formation of the new government in the state, would be returning to Imphal on Thursday.

Sources said that Th Biswajit would be arriving here at 9 am while N Biren and A Sharda reach the state in the next flight from Delhi on Thursday.

Meanwhile, uncertainty over who will become the next chief minister of the state persists.

BJP did not project any chief ministerial candidate in the recent election and the party is still unable to announce the name of the CM.

The party has not issued any official statement in this regard till date.

In the last election too, the party had similar situation over the post or chief minister after it formed the government with support from NPP, NPF, UP, Trinamool Congress and one independent candidate along with one defector from INC.

N Biren Was selected for the post after BJP national observers visited Imphal and had long discussions over the issue.

On Wednesday, many major national media outlets published reports of N Biren getting the green signal from the central leaders for retaining the post of CM.

The report led to celebration at the party's state office here on Wednesday afternoon by several party workers, who are in favour of N Biren becoming the CM yet again.

On the other hand, sources within the BJP state unit refuted the reports published by national media outlets while terming it as mere speculation by the media houses.

The report was published after Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted about a courtesy visit from N Biren and congratulated for the party's victory in the recently concluded state assembly elections.

The tweet did not mention anything about chief minister.

The source said that party observers finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Law & Justice minister Kiren Rijiju would be arriving here to collect opinions from the party MLAs.

Announcement of the next chief minister and decision on formation of the new government would be done after their arrival.

Maintaining that the media report is against the spirit of democratic norms and formal procedure of the party, the sources further said that the report has created annoyance among the BJP MLAs in the state as it cited the source as BJP.

It also stated that leadership of the legislative party goes to the person chosen by the majority of the elected MLAs to prevent future disappointment within the party.

Caretaker CM N Biren met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home minister Amit Shah and other union ministers on Wednesday.

After the meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board was held on Tuesday, Biren called on PM Modi, Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath, Union minister and Manipur Election co-in-charge Pratima Bhoumik, Highways and Transport minister Nitin Gadkari, and others on Wednesday.

During the meeting, PM Modi reportedly patted N Biren for restoring peace in Manipur, while the latter lauded the PM stating that the state BJP was able to stabilise law and order in the state under the former's leadership.

Union Minister Amit Shah expressed his joy on BJP getting absolute majority in the recent elections.

Biren later conveyed about his meetings with the PM and the union ministers on social media.

The issue over the chief minister's post got spicy after some national media reported that the BJP is all set to retain N Biren and Pramod Sawant as chief ministers of Manipur and Goa respectively.

The reports quoted a BJP insider as saying that after detailed discussion, the party central leadership has approved the names of Biren and Sawant for the post of chief minister Manipur and Goa respectively.

Biren served as the chief minister from 2017 to 2022.Sawant was made chief minister of Goa after the demise of Manohar Parrikar in March 2019.In Goa, the BJP won 20 out of 40 seats and received support of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which won two seats.

In Manipur, the BJP got the majority on its own for the first time.

Late Tuesday evening, the top BJP leadership met at Prime Minister Modi's residence to discuss the formation of the party 's government in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

"Met Shri @NBirenSingh Ji and congratulated him on @BJP4Manipur's stupendous victory in the recently concluded Assembly Polls.

Our Party is committed to working even harder to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Manipur," tweeted PM Modi.

However, no official confirmation had been made by the BJP at the time of filing this report.

On Tuesday, BJP Manipur Pradesh chief A Sharda Devi along with Biren and Th Biswajit left for Delhi to meet the party's central leaders to discuss the formation of the new government in Manipur.

Having secured 32 seats in the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly elections, the BJP will form the government for a second term.

A former footballer and journalist - turned - politician, Biren Singh was first elected as a member of the Manipur Legislative Assembly in 2002 in a Democratic Revolutionary People's Party from the Heingang constituency.

Later, he joined the Indian National Congress in 2003 and retained his seat in the 2007 state elections.

The former minister quit the Congress party and joined the BJP in 2016.In 2017, Biren Singh was re-elected for the fourth term from his home constituency and became the first BJP chief minister of Manipur.

Comment