N Biren Singh to serve as Manipur chief minister for second term

The BJP has tapped N Biren Singh as the chief minister of Manipur for a second time. He was unanimously elected to the CM post in the Manipur BJP legislature party meeting in Imphal on Sunday.

The decision comes 10 days after the BJP returned to power in Manipur for the second time in a row, winning 32 seats in the 60-member House in the recent assembly elections in the state. N Biren Singh had won from the Heingang assembly seat.

There had been intense speculation over who would be appointed the next chief minister of the northeastern state. While N Biren Singh was a top contender for the post, two-time MLA and former cabinet minister Th Bishwajit Singh was also said to be in the running.

Notably, both N Biren Singh and Th Bishwajit Singh were in Delhi on Saturday for meetings with the BJP’s central leadership.

Welcoming N Biren Singh’s second term as chief minister of Manipur, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “It is a good decision taken unanimously by everyone. It will ensure that Manipur has a stable and responsible government which will build further because the Centre today under the leadership of PM Modi gives special attention to Northeastern states.”

Sitharaman, along with Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, was in Imphal on Sunday to attend a meeting with the newly elected BJP MLAs in the state.

This time around, the BJP contested the Manipur Assembly polls alone and managed to win a majority on the plank that a vote for the party would bring peace to the insurgency-hit state.