GUWAHATI: The search for a consensus face to succeed N Biren Singh as Manipur CM could stretch until Wednesday as BJP’s North-East incharge Sambit Patra scans a clutch of prospective candidates seeking to drive the Meitei-Kuki “reconciliation” agenda. At least one contender – cabinet minister and known Biren baiter Yumnam Khemchand Singh – put his hand up on Monday by declaring that the process of reconciling the communities after nearly two years of ethnic bloodletting would “start soon”.
Khemchand, who met Patra at a hotel in Imphal, told the media that the discussion was focused on restoring peace in the state. “The challenge we are facing is how to restore normalcy,” Khemchand said. “Isn’t that what everyone in Manipur would love to have? I want this too.”
Patra, who accompanied Biren on his trip back to Imphal from Delhi on Sunday after the latter’s meeting with home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda, had a stream of visitors throughout Monday amid frenzied speculation about who would be the next CM. Khemchand said Biren’s resignation was “a decision taken by the high command, and we accept it”. He said it was the party brass’s prerogative to pick the next CM.
“Whatever the party high command decides, we have to accept that. Doesn’t matter who is selected. You may have heard from others (on the probables), but this is the way,” he said.
Patra met speaker Thokchom Satyabrata, another strident critic of Biren, minister Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh and MLA Th Radheshyam, among others.
Manipur Congress president K Meghachandra said President’s rule in the state shouldn’t even be an option. “We also oppose any move to place the assembly in suspended animation for now. Congress wants a democratically elected govt in Manipur in the interest of safeguarding democracy.”
Congress, which has five MLAs in the House of 60, had been planning a no-trust move against the BJP-led govt before Biren’s sudden resignation after braving repeated calls for his ouster over his handling of the ethnic conflict since May 2023.
The budget session of the assembly, which was scheduled to begin on Monday, was put on hold by governor AK Bhalla late Sunday, hours after he accepted Biren’s resignation and requested him to continue as caretaker CM till “alternative arrangements are made”.
