JD(U) Manipur unit chief sacked after he withdraws support from Biren Singh govt

JD(U) Manipur unit chief sacked after he withdraws support from Biren Singh govt

JD(U) Manipur unit chief sacked after he withdraws support from Biren Singh govt ByThomas Ngangom Jan 22, 2025 06:17 PM IST Share Via Copy Link The announcement to relieve Ksh Biren Singh of his responsibility to lead the JD (U) in Manipur came hours after he declared that the party didn’t support the BJP-led govt

IMPHAL: The Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) sacked its Manipur unit chief Ksh Biren Singh on Wednesday, hours after he sent a letter to governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla withdrawing support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state and demand that its lone MLA be treated as a member of the Opposition in the assembly.

The BJP has 32 MLAs in Manipur’s 60-seat assembly. (Photo: cpahq.org)

“This is completely misleading and baseless,” JD(U) national spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan Prasad told news agency ANI after a copy of the letter from the party’s state unit chief emerged on social media.

“The party has taken cognizance of this, and the president of the Manipur unit has been relieved of his position. We have supported the NDA, and our support for the NDA government in Manipur will continue. The Manipur unit did not consult the central leadership, nor were they given approval. The letter was written independently by the state president. Considering this an act of indiscipline, action has been taken against him,” Prasad said, hoping to cap the controversy over Singh’s letter.

To be sure, chief minister Biren Singh’s BJP has a clear majority in the state assembly with 32 members in the 60-seat assembly.

In his letter to the governor, Ksh Biren Singh said the JD (U) had become part of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc after withdrawal of support to the state’s BJP-led government. It also claimed that its lone legislator Md Abdul Nasir’s seat had already been shifted by the speaker.

“As such, seating arrangement of the lone MLA of JD(U) in Manipur Md Abdul Nasir is made in the opposition bench in the last session of the Assembly by the Speaker,” said the letter. It also underlined that five of the six legislators who won the 2022 state elections on JD (U) tickets, defected to the BJP and the proceedings against them for defection were still pending before the speaker.

Apart from the BJP’s 32 and JD (U) six seats, the National People’s Party (NPP) has seven MLAs, Naga People’s Front (NPF) has five, Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA) has two, and the Congress holds five seats, along with three independent MLAs.

When the NPP withdrew support from the Manipur government in November last year, it only reduced the NDA’s strength to 44 MLAs.

The actual strength of the assembly currently is 59 following the death of NPP Manipur president N Kayisii, who represented Tadubi (ST) assembly constituency in Senapati district, on January 18 after a prolonged illness.