The (NPF) has decided to pull out of Nongthombam Biren Singh’s coalition government in Manipur after the Lok Sabha election results on May 23. Senior NPF leader and former Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang said his party has decided to withdraw from the BJP-led Manipur government. “After an intense deliberation and review meeting with the party functionaries and the NPF MLAs of Manipur, the NPF party has decided in principle to pull out our 4 NPF MLAs from the BJP-led govt. in Manipur headed by N. Biren Singh soon after the LS election is completed,” Mr. Zeliang tweeted on Saturday. “This decision at this juncture is necessitated due to the indifferent attitude of the BJP towards us, its coalition partner in Manipur and also in Nagaland,” NPF’s Manipur unit president A. Newmai said. The withdrawal of the four MLAs will leave the Biren Singh government with 36 legislators, five more than the majority mark in the 60-member Manipur Assembly.
The BJP is the largest party in this coalition with 21 MLAs followed by eight defectors from the Congress (whose status is unclear), four each of NPF and National People’s Party (NPP), one each of Lok Janashakti Party and All India Trinamool Congress and an independent.
The opposition Congress has 20 MLAs.
There were speculations of the NPP taking a cue from the NPF, particularly because of its differences with the BJP over the latter’s push for the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. But NPF president and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma had on Friday said that his party was committed to continuing support to the ministry.
State Congress president Gaikhangam said that his party would try to form an alternative government if the NPF pulls out. “The case of the eight Congress MLAs who are supporting the BJP is in the Supreme Court as the Assembly Speaker did not act on our complaint. Our party did nothing to destabilise the coalition ministry, which has no name or common minimum programme,” he said.
