BJP Announces N Biren Singh As Manipur Chief Minister For Second Term

New Delhi: Ending the suspense over Manipur's Chief Minister, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday announced N Biren Singh as Manipur Chief Minister.

The announcement came nearly after ten days since the results of the election were out.

Apart from Singh, two other contenders were -- Biswajit Singh and Yumnam Khemchand. Biswajit was considered to be a major contender for the chief minister's post. He has been in BJP longer than Biren Singh. However, Biren Singh was elected to the top post after the 2017 elections.

All three had met with the BJP's central leadership in Delhi on Saturday amid the discussion over who would be holding the command of the state.

Eventually, Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Kiren Rijiju, who are the BJPs central observers for Manipur, landed in state capital Imphal to make the announcement.

Singh, 61, a former footballer and journalist, led the saffron party campaign in Manipur at a time when BJP had not announced a chief ministerial face.

Interestingly, BJP returned to power in Manipur for the second time in a row. The BJP has won 32 seats in the 60-member House in the recent assembly elections in the state. N Biren Singh has won from Heingang assembly seat.

Welcoming N Biren Singh's second term as the Chief Minister of Manipur, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "It is a good decision taken unanimously by all. This will ensure that Manipur has a stable and responsible government.

Apart from BJP, NPP has got 7 seats, NPF 5, Congress 5, JDU 6, Kuki People's Alliance 2 and Independent candidates got 3 seats. In Manipur, which has 60 seats, 31 MLAs are needed to form the government on its own.

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