Imphal:
N Biren Singh has been elected Chief Minister of Manipur for the second time. Ten days after the election results came, the BJP today announced Mr Singh as the Chief Minister among two other contenders – Biswajit Singh and Yumnam Khemchand.
All three had met with the BJP’s central leadership in Delhi yesterday as the party discussed who would become Manipur’s next Chief Minister.
Today, Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Kiren Rijiju, the BJP’s central observers for Manipur, landed in the capital Imphal to make the announcement.
A former footballer and journalist, Mr Singh, 61, led the BJP campaign in Manipur, although the BJP had not announced an official ministerial face at the time.
Biswajit Singh, who also ran 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 narrow margin of 32 out of 60 seats, the case required nimble handling as it suspected rivals could exploit the situation.
A third contender, backed by the BJP’s ideological mentor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, for the Chief Minister’s seat had also emerged in Manipur. RSS-backed leader, speaker at the previous meeting Yumnam Khemchand Singh, was summoned to Delhi by the BJP leadership yesterday.