Biren Singh will be new Chief Minister of Manipur

“The mandate is clearly for a non-Congress government, it is natural that political leaders have made a decision to come together”, Madhav had said.

Assam finance minister and NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma said that a Congress MLA and the lone MLA of AITC had joined BJP taking the party number to 32.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party may finalise the choice of party legislature leader. The other contender was Thongam Bishwajit, a BJP MLA since 2015.

Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal, who was the party observer for Manipur, accompanied by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and BJP Manipur BJP president Kh Bhabananda, made the announcement of Biren Singhs elevation as the legislature party leader soon after the meeting.

Earlier T Biswajith was in the race to become the next Chief Minister of Manipur. Goyal said the BJP would form the government and Biren would be the new CM. She had also asked Singh to bring NPP MLAs to the Raj Bhavan in person to prove support.

Thanking senior leaders including Narendra Modi and Amit Shah Biren Singh said that he had “left Congress due to misgovernance”. “The mandate of the people of Manipur has been for change, and we will bring that change to the state”, he said.

“You can have succession in dynasty to an extent based on merit and aptitude, but if you are tied down by the compulsion of dynastic succession, it is bound to meet the kind of consequences that we are seeing today”, the minister said.

“Our party and elected members have extended support to the BJP in the formation of the ministry”, he said. “We will show it”, Ibobi Singh said. “There is no question of other defections from the party”.

He further said that it is incumbent on the part of the Governor to call the Chief Minister and only if he fails to form a government then the option could be given to the next.

The Congress has won 28 seats in Manipur while the BJP has secured 21. “We shall give a new life to the people of the state”. The BJP today named the 56-year-old as its chief ministerial candidate.