BJP’s N Biren Singh has been named as the Chief Minister of Manipur for the second time.
Imphal:
N Biren Singh has been elected as the Chief Minister of Manipur for the second time. Ten days after the election results were out, the BJP today announced Mr Singh as the chief minister between two more contenders – Biswajit Singh and Yumnam Khemchand.
The trio met the BJP’s central leadership in Delhi yesterday as the party discussed who would be the next chief minister of Manipur.
Today, Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Kiren Rijiju, who is the BJP’s central observer for Manipur, arrived in the state capital Imphal to make the announcement.
A former footballer and journalist, Mr Singh, 61, led the BJP’s campaign in Manipur, though the BJP had not formally announced the chief ministerial face then.
Biswajit Singh, who was also in the race for the top post, has been in the BJP longer than Biren Singh, but the latter was elected to the top post after the 2017 elections.
For the BJP, which won the state by a meager margin of 32 out of 60 seats, the matter needed to be handled tactfully as it suspected rivals might take advantage of the situation.
A third contender for the chief minister’s post backed by the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had also emerged in Manipur. RSS-backed leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh, speaker of the previous assembly, was summoned by the BJP leadership to Delhi yesterday.
Biren Singh fought Manipur’s election with a measured promise to do something about the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA, which gives military sweeping powers over civilians. Though he said he would work to remove AFSPA, he preferred a balanced approach that takes care of the ground realities.
Biren Singh started his career as a footballer and joined the Border Security Force, or BSF, while playing for his team in domestic competitions. Left the BSF and became a journalist.
Despite having no formal training and experience, he started a local daily, Nahrolgi Thoudang, in 1992 and served as its editor until 2001.
He joined politics in 2002, when he contested and won his first election from Hingang Assembly Constituency in Manipur. He retained the seat on a Congress ticket in 2007 and served as a minister till 2012. Four years later, he joined the BJP, and in 2017, he again won from his seat, after which he was made the chief minister.