N Biren Singh stepped down as the chief minister of Manipur on Sunday, nearly two years after ethnic violence broke out in the state that has since claimed more than 250 lives, setting the stage for a change of guard in the northeastern state amid rumblings within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and threats of a no-confidence motion by the opposition Congress.
Governor Ajay Bhalla accepted Singh’s resignation, but urged him to continue in the post until alternative arrangements are made, a statement from the Raj Bhawan said. Late in the evening, Bhalla declared the 7th session of Legislative Assembly, which was to commence from Monday, “null and void”.
Speculation over what prompted Singh’s decision, however, continued to run rife, even as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge described the resignation as “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted”.
State BJP leaders suggested that Singh continuing in the post could have been embarrassing for the party during the assembly session. Earlier on Friday, Manipur Congress president Keisham Meghachandra said on X, “…Congress party set to move No Confidence Motion” without giving a specific timeline.
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“Had the CM not tendered his resignation it would have been embarrassing for the party on Monday when the assembly session was set to begin. The Congress’s Manipur leaders had already announced they would demand no confidence motion against him,” the BJP leader cited above said, requesting anonymity.
Separately, at least five BJP MLAs had announced plans to sit in the opposition and all of this was communicated to the central leadership of the BJP.
“As many as 10 BJP MLAs resolved to sit in the opposition and not support him. These MLAs include ministers too. All this was known to the CM and was communicated to the central leadership (of the BJP) regularly, so he has resigned,” the leader cited above said, adding that even on Sunday when the CM visited the governor, “less than 20 MLAs went in support”.
In fact, ahead of the assembly session the security forces were anticipating a possible breakdown in law and order on Monday, and held an inter-agency security review meeting of forces. A senior security officer, who asked not to be named said, “The meeting in the morning was of all agencies chaired by security advisor. We were all preparing anticipating a big development in the assembly.”
The immediate trigger, this leader said, appeared to be rumblings within the BJP a day before the state assembly was set to convene, in the backdrop of multiple trips to Delhi by rebel MLAs of the Manipur assembly.
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“Singh and some other leaders were due to fly to Prayagraj via New Delhi at 8pm that evening (February 5). But he pressed the panic button and flew out on an IndiGo flight from Imphal to Delhi at 11am to hold meetings with BJP leaders including home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi,” he said. “We were told that he could not meet Shah and later, around midnight, went to Prayagraj in the chartered flight that had landed from Manipur by then,” said the leader.
Only two of the MLAs who were camping in New Delhi managed to meet the central leaders of the BJP and conveyed their lack of faith in Singh, a second functionary said.
“We have learnt that while many MLAs camped in New Delhi, not all were given appointment by senior BJP leaders like Union home minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda. We know of only two MLAs who managed to meet the central leadership, rural development and panchayati raj minister Y Khemchand and speaker T Satyabrata Singh. They must have conveyed the dissent brewing against the chief minister,” the second BJP leader said.
Over the last 21 months, several BJP MLAs including Khemchand had refused to attend meetings called by the CM, instead reaching out to the central leadership in Delhi.
Since May 3, 2023, the day ethnic clashes between the state’s Meitei and Kuki residents broke out in Manipur, Singh has lost support of his colleagues slowly but gradually.
It started with BJP’s 7 Kuki MLAs, followed by two of the Kuki People’s Alliance and one independent withdrawing support to Singh’s government in August 2023.
On November 17 last year, Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP), which has seven lawmakers in the 60-member Manipur assembly, withdrew support saying the BJP-led state government “failed to resolve the crisis and restore normalcy”.
Following Sangma’s announcement, Singh sought to display a show of strength at a meeting at his residence. Only 26 MLAs, however, joined the meeting physically, with one MLA marking his attendance virtually.
Meanwhile, there were also rumors of Singh’s resignation being prompted by the Supreme Court decision to direct a central forensics lab for a report on leaked audio tapes that allegedly feature Singh and where he is purportedly heard saying the ethnic violence in the state was instigated at his insistence. The BJP leader, however, has rejected the allegations.
The second BJP leader cited above cited three main reasons for the rebellion against the CM.
“When he became the CM for the second term, senior BJP MLAs were not happy with him and his functioning. The second is the handling of the ethnic clashes and people in the valley losing faith in his leadership. The third was the attack on houses of MLAs. Those MLAs who were undecided whether to support him or not, decided their course of action. Barring 10-15 MLAs, who are supposedly close to him, the CM was losing allies every day,” the second leader said.
While there was no official communication from the BJP on a replacement for Singh, the decision appeared to have support of the party’s ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
“The BJP high command that stood by Biren Singh for the past two years, finally gave in to the demand to appoint a new CM, apprehending that the simmering tensions within the state unit will be exposed during the upcoming assembly session… the Sangh also backed the CM for his crackdown against narcotics but had suggested a middle ground after party leaders began bickering openly,” said a functionary of a Sangh offshoot, privy to the details.