Manipur CM Biren Singh wins floor test in assembly

Manipur chief minister Nongthombam Biren Singh won a floor test in the 60-member Manipur assembly on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had lodged all its legislators in a Guwahati hotel along with an independent and a Trinamool Congress lawmaker since Thursday.

Biren Singh was sworn in as the first BJP CM of Manipur on March 16.

Only two BJP MLAs, including the chief minister, were inducted in the BJP-led government.

A total of four berths were allotted to National People’s Party, all four of the party’s MLAs were made ministers.

The lone Lok Janashakti Party MLA Karam Shyam, Naga People’s Front’s Dikho and Congress legislator Th Shyam Kumar, who joined the coalition after his election, completed the list.

The BJP won 21 seats and formed the state government with support of four MLAs each of the NPP and the NPF, one MLA of the LJP and one lawmaker each of the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, who later joined the saffron party.

Though the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats, it was pipped by the BJP in the race to form the government. But governor Najma Heptulla directed a floor test since former CM  O Ibobi Singh of the Congress too staked claim to form the government.

This is the third BJP-led government in the region after Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The party is also part of the NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) coalition in Nagaland.

A cabinet expansion is expected within the next 10-12 days to accommodate more BJP legislators in the ministry, which can have a total of 12 ministers.

A corruption-free government and equal development of the valley and hills for a united Manipur will be the other priorities of the government, the 56-year-old CM has said.

Biren Singh’s government has also lifted a blockade of Manipur’s two national highways since November last year. The blockade was a protest against the creation of new districts by the former Congress government.