While Manipur’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has flown to Delhi to lay rival claims to the position of Chief Minister of the State, National People’s Party (NPP) leader and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, who had earlier flown to Imphal to seek a place for his party in the government to be formed, seems miffed by hints that the BJP will go ahead and form a single-party government in Manipur. Mr. Sangma said he would “examine” the situation if his party was not invited to join the government.
Manipur’s caretaker Chief Minister N. Biren Singh as well as former Works Minister Th. Biswajit Singh, who is being seen by many as a potential candidate for the chief ministerial chair, had flown to Delhi for consultations with the BJP’s top leadership on Tuesday. BJP State unit chief A. Sharda Devi too is in Delhi ahead of the formation of the new government in the State.
While the BJP won a simple majority in the House by securing 32 of 60 seats in the Manipur Assembly, results to which were announced last week, the NPP too did creditably, winning seven seats.
“Even in the region, the NPP as a national party is part of the NEDA (North-East Democratic Alliance). If the BJP does invite us in government formation in Manipur, we will be happy. If the situation is that we are not part of the government there, we will examine the matter,” Mr. Sangma told a group of journalists here.
The NPP had not entered into a pre-poll agreement with the BJP despite being part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and having the BJP as an ally in the Meghalaya Government.
Mr. Singh has already indicated that he did not favour taking the NPP into the BJP-led government, though the Naga People’s Front is likely to find a place in the new government.
“In the case of Manipur, BJP has the majority. The decision will be theirs. If they invite, we will definitely join,” Mr. Sangma said.
The party’s central observers and co-observers, Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, are expected to fly down to Imphal to oversee the election of the Chief Minister after discussions with the central leadership.
