Manipur CM Biren Singh.
Manipur CM N Biren Singh resigned on Sunday, February 9 as the Opposition considered a no-confidence motion against his government.
Singh was accompanied by 14 MLAs belonging to the BJP and NPF. State BJP president A Sharda and senior saffron party leader Sambit Patra were also part of the delegation. After meeting the governor, Singh went to the CM secretariat.
In the letter to the Governor, Manipur CM Biren Singh said that he was “extremely grateful to the Central government for timely actions, interventions, developmental work and implementation of various projects for safeguarding the interest of every single Manipuri”.
“My sincere request to the Central government through your good office is to continue with the same. I take the opportunity to enumerate the most important ones of them,” he said, citing these as maintaining the “territorial integrity of Manipur which has a rich and diverse civilizational history over thousands of years”, cracking down “on border infiltration and formulate policy for the deportation of the illegal immigrants” and “the fight against drugs and narco-terrorism”.
Manipur CM also listed the “stringent and fool-proof revised mechanism of FMR with the biometric being stringently applied” and “time-bound and faster border which is underway”
Nongthombam Biren Singh, 64, took over as the 12th CM of Manipur on March 15, 2017, after leading the BJP to its first victory in the state, and retained power in the 2022 Assembly elections. However, the ethnic violence between Meitis and Kuki-Zos that broke out in May 2023 in the state, had cast a cloud over his second term.
A day before his resignation, Manipur CM N Biren Singh flew to Delhi on a chartered flight, officials said, without revealing the purpose of his visit.
Earlier, Singh held a meeting with BJP-led ruling alliance MLAs at the CM Secretariat ahead of the assembly session starting February 10. At least 20 MLAs attended the meeting, which followed the opposition Congress’ move to bring a no-confidence motion against his government.
The Congress termed N Biren Singh’s resignation from the post of Manipur CM as “belated” and said people of the state were now awaiting a visit by “our frequent-flier Prime Minister” Narendra Modi.
AICC general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Congress was all set to move a no-confidence motion against Singh and his council of ministers in the Manipur Assembly on Monday, February 10.
“Sensing the climate, the Manipur chief minister has just resigned. This was a demand that the Congress has been making since early May 2023, when Manipur erupted,” he said in a post on X.
“The chief minister’s resignation was belated. The people of Manipur now await a visit by our frequent-flier prime minister who is off to France and the US now — and who has found neither the time nor the inclination to go to Manipur these past 20 months,” Ramesh said.
(With inputs from PTI)
This post was last modified on February 9, 2025 8:16 pm